


bring on the thorn and crown (crucify me)

by Silvyavan



Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Antima The Opportunist, Asta is Babylon's reincarnation, Asta is So Damn Tired of This Crap, Babylon is The Demons' Emotional Support Human, Bickering, Chases, Deal with a Devil, Deja Vu, Demons, Demons Are Nasty and Possessive Assholes, Demons Misunderstand Everything, Denial, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Misunderstands Everything, F/M, Getting Together, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Jealousy, M/M, Marriage of Convenience, Mental Anguish, Misunderstandings, Nacht is Suffering, Nightmares, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Revelations, Satan Haunts Demons From The Grave, Scars, Spoilers for the Manga, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:42:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 36,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26431339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvyavan/pseuds/Silvyavan
Summary: After the incident in the Witch's Forest, Asta is plagued by nightmares of demons, hell and being hunted. After nights upon nights of sleepless torture, Asta decides to take matters into his own hands and stop them. Except he's stuck with a revelation and a choice - a deal with the devil or continued suffering which ends with him becoming a monster. Babylon!Asta au, warnings inside.
Relationships: Anti Magic Devil | Asta's Devil & Asta (Black Clover), Anti Magic Devil | Asta's Devil/Asta, Asta & Mimosa Vermillion, Asta & Noelle Silva, Asta/Liebe (Black Clover), Asta/Lucifero (Black Clover), Asta/Yuno (Black Clover), Julius Novachrono & Yami Sukehiro, Kotodama Magic Devil & Asta
Comments: 28
Kudos: 128





	1. Are you hating yourself? Do you really hate me?

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: WARNING! THIS FIC HAS: HEAVY SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA, mentions/talks of rape/non-con (not actually written), mentions of sexual activity (not actually written), SUICIDAL THEMES, Dehumanism, being pursued by people, uncomfortable situations, misunderstandings and demons being nasty. Be careful y'all, if you're not comfortable with reading this stuff, please don't. Currate your online experience with care.
> 
> ENnjoy this 16k word mess of me writting about demons pining for Asta. Title and chapter names inspired by Babylon by SZA feat. Kendrick Lamar.

Asta didn't think much about who his parents were. He was an orphan, yes, but the church always had chores to do. And if not, then Asta would have found something else to do, like training or helping Sister Lily. Existential reflections didn't come from boredom, and even if they did, Asta didn't care.

The minute they had left him on the doorstep of the church, that was the end of that. His family is Father Orsi, sister Lily, Yuno and all the other children in the church. It was enough for him and he was glad that he had such a family. Who knew, if they had not left him, he might have never had any brothers or sisters, and Asta would have become sad and lonely.

But intrusive thoughts still came in the middle of the night, when Asta couldn't sleep and his brain began to wander in the direction of what ifs. Hage was a small village, but it was on the edge of the kingdom. Maybe the parents were from another kingdom?

Perhaps from the Heart, they have many rivers and reservoirs and there was a stream near the village. To think about the fact that they were from Diamond was scary. He heard from other farmers in the village talking about that kingdom. They ripped and patched together grimoires, made experiments on the development of magic on children. It was the stuff of nightmares. His parents must have left in Clover to protect the child, if the rumours were true. He had no mana and even here he was constantly ostracised for it. And what if he was from Spade? He didn't know what was happening in the Northern kingdom. And moreover, the kingdom of Spade was surrounded by the strong mana zone. You can't get in and you can't get out of there.

And who were they _? His mother and father, why-_

_Why was he left behind? Did they figure out that he had no magic when he was born?_

Deep mulling like those usually ended with Asta either falling asleep and forgetting everything, or thinking _"I don't care, I will still become the Wizard King for the family that cared for me, not the one that threw me away."_

That was many years ago. Asta received a grimoire, became a magic knight in the Black Bulls and slowly began to work towards his dream. There's just one problem. One big, horrid problem, that didn't leave him alone, no matter how many times he solved it.

Demons. Fucking _demons._ They were like hydras - you kill one, three appear in its place. And this wasn't even a metaphor.

Asta knew a lot of people had problems with demons, but for him it was more specifically with the demon inside his grimoire. He had only seen tidbits of him, the last time they had an actual conversation was in the Witches' Forest. However, recently he had begun seeing... dreams.

No, they weren't dreams. They were _nightmares_. Nightmares of running from demons, just barely escaping death or even something worse, all while his strength seems to slowly sap away from him.

He wakes up in hell. At least, that's what he thinks it is. Asta can't imagine a place like this being anywhere in the world, much less near civilization or humans.

The world is a rooted cave system that seemed similar to roots, the soil is as black as coal, the fire is blue and cold like ice and the buildings that appear in large open spaces are as white as the dress he wears. _Yes, dress_. His demon must have a sick sense of humour for putting him in a dress and forcing him to run for his life in it.

The dress is... Asta doesn't think it looks good on him. It's clearly a dress meant to accent one's body but it makes Asta look like it's like a curtain with a gold, tree-like belt. His entire chest is open, save for the two pieces of shawl-like cloth that cover the chest, secured where the belt is but left to billow behind his back like a cape. There's two slits that start at the belt that cut down and reveal the front of his legs, while the fabric pools at his feet.

Maybe it would look good on a mature, tall woman but Asta's short and bulky stature makes the dress seem like a curtain in his opinion.

But less about the dress that makes Asta try and wrap what little of the covering he has around himself and more about the fact that Asta is left in the clearest definition of hell with _no grimoire, no swords and with a whole group of demons chasing him through the cave system_ the minute they lay their eyes on him.

Asta had _never_ felt so helpless when he first had the dream. He was lucky to have evaded them all in that one night simply by blending into the buildings. All he has in that dimension is his strength and his wits, which may as well be next to nothing.

He's an idiot, he knows this, he's bitterly accepted it. He's foolish enough to run from the shadowy demons in human shapes into one of the white ruins, only to find a one not veiled in shadows, teeth open in a parody of a smile and with eyes that do not hide the demon's intentions.

 _Out the pan, into the fire_ \- if the shadow demons simply chased him, then the ruin demons who found him all but started hunting him with a type of magic Asta couldn't focus on remembering and saying words he couldn't understand. The demon, whose horns had grown backwards and twisted upwards at the end, had acted like it was all a game, judging by the melodious laughter and sickly sweet words echoing the halls as Asta all but ran for his life. Too many times had the devil nearly caught him.

Asta had barely evaded, just somehow managing to evade the devil long enough to escape the ruins and run back into the dark cave system. But there's no escape - if he ran into the black caverns, he'd be eventually found and chased by other more adventurous ruin demons, if he ran into the white ruins for cover, he'd be hunted by one with the disadvantage of getting lost. It was like an endless cycle of trekking through the land, running from wanderers into the temporary safety of the closest ruins, eventually get found out by a demon and barely escaping the castle and ending up doing it all over again until something pulled him out of it.

Asta always woke up from falling down. He once tried to throw himself off a tower on one of the ruins to wake up.

_That sure ended well._

The demon of the ruins of the time - odd horns that seemed to grow upwards with just a bit of a curve halfway, arrow-like tail and sleek wings with long, gangly arms - had found him right when Asta had gathered enough courage to jump and began chasing him again.

Except this demon clearly hadn't been playing a game.

Asta and he were teleported into what seemed to be a hall and the demon was just a hair's length away from grabbing him.

Asta ran, like he always did. But this time, this time Asta had gotten _caught_. The demon hadn't laughed or sang like all the other Ruin Demons did or play some sadistic game of hide and seek. No, the demon had chased him like his life depended on it, yelling at Asta in what seemed to be rage and maybe even _desperation_. Asta hadn't even managed to get to the staircase before something ensnared him and began pulling him back into the hall in mid air.

There was a moment of pure, unfiltered panic and fear in him before the adrenaline kicked in, he ripped himself out of the bindings and jumped out of the nearest window, loud screams from the devil being the last thing he heard before waking up with a start.

He didn't sleep for two days afterwards. He's avoided going inside the ruins ever since.

Asta always falls down, be it a ruined staircase, through the floor, slipping under his footing or a cliff but the dream always ended with him falling and falling until he hits water. He thought it was water at least, but the red liquid and black smoke and particles floating around him make it difficult to believe.

It's a calm, peaceful descent before a pair of enormous black hands start reaching out to him from below, trapping him in between the fingers. It's the slowest part of the dream, but to Asta it's the most _terrifying_.

Because the hands that caged him belonged to the very demon inside his grimoire, red eyes gleaming and smile widening. He's trapped and for all he tries, his limbs feel like lead, refusing to so much as weakly push against the flesh.

Asta never knows what the demon wants from him. He always does something different every night but everything from caressing his face with just the tip of his nail to simply staring at him can be a well-disguised threat.

Asta had learnt to read with the help of the book that had the legend of the first Wizard King. The story has been engraved in his mind for almost more than ten years. There have been many people who were cursed by demons with ill intent. Whatever this demon wants from him, it's not going to be good for anyone.

These dreams feel like _psychological torture_ that the crooked horned demon does to make him weaken. He doesn't weaken, if anything he becomes stronger. He's faster, he can hide and evade better now and he can escape the pesky traps that are lying around the woods much easier.

 _But by God,_ Asta would leave those nightmares behind in a heartbeat. Even his friends are noticing it. Asta doesn't want to lie to his friends but he can only say that he's getting vivid nightmares. Luck, of all people, immediately responds by grabbing a large bottle of strong but sweet smelling alcohol from the shelves and placing it in front of him.

"Back when I only first joined the Black Bulls, I used to have nightmares. Not scary ones but they're still nightmares. You wake up from them and you can't fall asleep anymore. So i found something out. Your body can't stay awake if it's drunk and your brain can't make up nightmares if it's drunk either. Don't do it every night though." Luck had said. Asta wasn't sure if he was to be believed or not, but anything is good at this point.

Asta had drunk a whole cup, twice the amount Luck had used, and decided that if this doesn't work, he'll resort to worse means. Like actually fighting the demons with his bare hands and whatever large rocks he can find.

Instead, Asta wakes up drunk in the nightmare, wobbles his way to the river he always sees in the distance and simply decides to lie in it. The current takes him slowly to a destination and at some point a strange pebble lands on Asta's chest. Asta, in a drunken haze, begins talking to the rock. About everything. From the disappointment and jeers of the people of his village to the almost manslaughter in the Witches' Forest.

At some point the rant turns into a song Sister Lily had once made up. They had been washing the laundry when she had made up a song about washing the tablecloth. Asta, unfortunately, didn't remember the whole song and many words had become replaced with the next best thing.

_"Do~own the creek this fabric flo~oats,_

_No~othing for me but the sinners belo~ow,_

_Do~own the river of death I go~o,_

_Until the sea swallows me who~ole!"_ Asta sang, water getting into his mouth and making him gurgle. He sings the four lines over and over again, without any care for the direction he's floating.

There are lights, long exposure of what seem to be sparks coming into shapes. The red light bounces off the water and shines on his eyes. He's hypnotised but not by the beauty of it. The nostalgic feeling of comfort and belongingness takes him and wraps around him like a halo. It feels natural, it feels right, more than anything ever has.

He drunkenly sings to the glowing lights, unaware that more rocks have fallen on him or that there were more yells of demonic speech in the background, muffled by his own voice and the water in his ears.

He notices a few fallen stones on his stomach and decides to dip himself underneath the water. The stones fall into the deep edge. Asta stays just a few inches below the water. The yelling is getting louder and more distorted. Asta's lungs start burning. I _t's peaceful_.

He eventually floated back up into the surface, but can only manage to keep his torso, head and hands above water.

He remembered a painting in the capital that reminded him of this. A woman half submerged in a lush, green and flowery river with the bottom of her dress floating up to the top. Klaus had said the painting was done by the captain of the Azure Deers. It's name was Ophelia.

 _Ophelia_. Hm, maybe he's Ophelia, half floating in a river in what seems to be a melancholic haze. But it's nice, it's calm, it's _the calmest night he's had in weeks_. Luck was right about the nightcap, this was great. No running, no _fear, no demons-_

A pair of clawed hands snake under his waist and knees and he's hauled up from the water in less than a second. Asta's head dangled as he was carried closer to shore, outraged yells and scratchy tones sliding off his ears like water. _Oh wait, he's got water in his mouth._

He proceeded to spit out the odd river water out, letting it cascade down his face. The arms carrying him shake him a little and he gurgles out more water. The pace of the person carrying him increases. The arms around him are _cold but firm-_

Asta's dangling head suddenly smashed into what felt like a stalagmite and he was out like a light, with the last things he had heard being someone screaming angrily at someone.

He wakes up somehow, he's not sure where and his senses feel like soup. He's vaguely aware he's lying on his side, wrapped in soft cloth. He feels that there's some form of binding wrapped around his waist, judging by how heavy it is on his side.

He tried to move, or wiggle out of the hold but somehow the bindings just pressed his body tighter against something firm, with small unintelligible whispers going off near his ears. Several alarm bells go off in Asta's head as he struggles harder, only to be released and have a massive amount of pressure pressed down on his whole body, rendering him immobile.

He can't open his eyes, he's sweating, he's being _pushed down in what feels like a soft bag and he can't remember how he got here. It's terrifying_ and Asta just wants this nightmare to be over with.

"Let me go- _please- stop,_ no more-" Asta breathes out, choked and slurred by the alcohol and his sore throat.

The pressure stops and he's let go, left lying on the soft ground and tangled in what feels like a large blanket. He tries taking deep breaths, anything to calm down but they end up coming out as gasps for air, twitching and tossing in frustration at how disoriented he felt. Maybe it's the alcohol, maybe it's the confusion and helplessness, maybe it's the fact that he's been having these nightmares for almost a month now but Asta feels close to breaking down. A choked sob escaped him as he tried to curl in on himself. Something wrapped around him and pressed him close. Claws started combing through his hair and Asta felt himself drift away.

 _Comfort,_ someone was trying to give him comfort. Asta's cheeks flushed.

 _ **"Oh, how the underworld has missed you, our poor Babylon."**_ Was the last thing Asta heard before falling asleep.

When Asta woke up again, he was considerably more sober, more lucid and had an enormous headache. He then realized he's in the red water again but with no sign of the ram horned demon. Asta sighed in relief. He was amazed that he woke up at all. Looking back at the dream, he realized he had all but attempted to drown himself with some rocks and the demons who were hunting him were the ones who fished him out. Sure, Asta had gotten the calmest night he had in weeks _but at what cost?_

But who knows, maybe they'll leave him alone after this. Asta sighed, _as if._

His sigh causes the surface which he lied on to stiffen. Asta looked down and promptly saw that he was lying cheek first on someone's pitch black triceps.

 _ **"How in Satan's name did you manage to mess up so bad that I had to smuggle you out of Lucifero's castle while that double horned bastard yelled at Zagred for letting you go the first time?"**_ A hoarse and familiar voice resounded above him. _**"I've never seen anyone throw insults so passionately before. Much less someone screaming at their subordinate while doing it."**_

"Do you think this is _funny_ , watching me run for my life away from demons in a dress like _some novella heroine_?" Asta groaned, anger rising.

 _ **"On the contrary, if you had stopped running I would've been able to get you out faster. For someone so loud and boisterous, you're surprisingly slippery."**_ Asta's demon replied. The way he said it made it seem like he had nothing to do with it, as if he was innocent in this.

 _"You're the one who put me there in the first place!"_ Asta said as he turned to the demon, pointing an accusing finger at him.

 ** _"I did not. You did. It's an ability you have. You came there by your own accord, even if unconsciously."_** The demon replied, poking him in the cheek and pulling at it. Asta whined in pain and ripped himself out of the hold, pushing himself off the demon. **_"You came to the underworld by yourself. I was the one who always had to fetch you out of it."_**

"What- that's _not_ possible!" Asta exclaimed. If hell was a whole different dimension, he doubted he could just _waltz_ in there with little-to-no problems.

 ** _"For a human, no."_** Asta flinched at the sentence, immediately understanding what it meant.

"But _I am human_!"

 _ **"No. You're Babylon."**_ The demon said it with such nonchalance, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I'm a _what_? A valveon?"

 _ **"Babylon. And not a, the Babylon."**_ The demon replied. Asta still didn't know what that word meant. His brows furrowed, trying to rack his brain for anything even sounding like the word. _**"You don't know what Babylon is. Have you even somewhat heard of it? Mystery, Babylon the Great, Whore of Babylon, Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth, Jewel of Demons-"**_

Asta lunged at the devil, calloused hands wrapping around the demon's throat in an attempt to choke him. Asta was _so mentally tired_ , he really couldn't find the politeness nor the rationality to not find a way to shut him up. He's been chased by demons in his dreams for a month and in less than a few hours he's gotten drunk, drowned, been suffocated and called a bunch of _fancy-shmancy_ titles that don't even ring a bell.

Asta has had enough and if gratuitous violence will shut the devil's mouth then gratuitous violence he will perform.

"Shut up! I don't know what that is and I don't care! I'm not a demon, _I'm nothing like you monsters_!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, hands squeezing the demon's neck.

 _ **"No, nothing like us indeed. Babylon is no demon, but Babylon is not human either. You cannot deny your nature, you cannot deny your destiny."**_ The demon said, not even relatively phased by the hands tightening on his neck, and reached out a hand to brush a stray lock of hair behind Asta's ear. Asta flinched away from the contact and the demon sighed at the loss of contact.

"Destiny, scmestiny, I don't care what you say I'm supposed to be, I'll carve my own path with my own two hands. I'll be the Wizard King-" Asta was interrupted by the demon laughing. It wasn't an evil laugh either. It was like someone had just realized the irony and humour of the situation. " _What's so damn funny?_!"

 _ **"You, you're funny. You say you won't be Babylon, but you're already declaring what you're meant to do. You really have no idea of who Babylon is, do you?"**_ The demon's grin widened. Asta bristled at the insult, at least it sounded like an insult.

"I don't need to know!"

_**"Oh but you do. And you're already acting upon it."** _

"From what I remember I haven't killed a single person. Unlike _someone_."

 ** _"Babylon does not kill. Babylon conquers."_** Something about the statement made Asta shudder, goosebumps rising on his skin. He pushed the rattled feeling down, determined to ignore it. _**"You're very good at it, too."**_

"What-"

 _ **"You said you will become the Wizard King? Babylon has promise of both position of power and wealth. You wish to help the Diamond Kingdom become peaceful? Babylon's influence spans across countries and the human who was given the puppet blood follows your words blindly. You wish to make commoners equal to nobles, to show that you can gain something by working hard and striving towards it? Babylon strives to demolish human societal systems, be it religion, power or class."**_ Each sentence made Asta shake with emotion. Was it fury, disgust, self-deprecation or complete shock? He couldn't tell, nor could he stifle the sound of anguish coming through his throat. His hands loosened and he started digging his nails into the collarbone of the devil. He hates him, he hates this creepy jerk who keeps saying weird stuff and _claiming he's not-_

 _No_. Asta _won't_ accept it. He's human, _more human_ than some humans. He's not this Babylon thing and he's not a demon. He's Asta, a human orphan found and raised in a church who's going to prove to everyone that you don't need a noble bloodline or some awesome form of magic to become great. He'll do it all while being human, because he's human, _he has to be-_

 _ **"Even if you deny it, you've already begun unconsciously towards becoming the epitome of Babylon. Your dreams, your personality, your morals - you hadn't known you were Babylon for one and a half decades but act exactly like one should. Though your behavior might warrant some... unexpected prying from other devils."** _The demon replied, rubbing soothing lines on his arms. This guy doesn't even make sense, first he's calling him a monster then he's comforting him.

"Moody bastard." Asta chokes out.

_**"I'm Babylon's moody bastard though, most devils would consider that an honour."** _

"I don't care about this Babylon stuff or anything like that I _just-_ " Asta choked back a furious sob. " _I don't wanna live like this_! I don't want to go to sleep knowing that I'm going to be _hunted for sport_ , I don't want to be some form of enrichment for _demons, I just want to sleep in peace, damn it!"_

 ** _"That can be arranged._** " The demon said calmly.

"Sure it is, what are you going to do, _give me a deal I won't refuse?_ I beat you once, I'll beat you again."

 _ **"Are you sure? I can make it so that you don't go back there at all. You can sleep in dreamless peace, with no demons coming into your mind to fester nightmares. It'll be like you never existed in the underworld at all."**_ The demon said, rubbing gentle circles on the back of Asta's hand with his thumb.

"There's a but there, I can hear it."

**_"But you must become my wife."_ **

"... I'm a man, though." Asta said with a blank expression. The demon simply huffed.

 ** _"Literally nobody cares. Babylon could be reincarnated as a man, a woman, both or neither - we wouldn't care. Fact still stands that they are Babylon. They were also a demon host and had mana. Much more mana than most humans. You not having any is quite the anomaly. I'm pretty sure the Curse Devil has become enamoured with learning what makes you tick."_** The demon refuted.

"That changes nothing. I'm not marrying you for _a night of peaceful sleep_. I'm going to marry someone else."

 _ **"Who? The nun?"**_ The demon jeers.

"Yeah!" Asta replied without a sliver of doubt in his voice. The smile on the devil fell, as if he had realized Asta was being serious.

_**"You might not kill saints but you seem to have a fixation on damning them for sin, huh?"** _

" _What the hell are you talking about_?! I love Sister Lily genuinely, unlike someone who's only interested in how he can bed me." Asta spat back, voice dripping with poison.

 _ **"You say that as if I don't love you genuinely."**_ He placed a hand over his forehead, feigning hurt.

"Do you, though?" Asta asked. The demon nodded. "Then if I were to ask you for something, would you do it?"

_**"Yes."** _

"Cool. When will you give me the divorce when I ask for one?"

 ** _"When you die."_** The demon replies with a smile, no shame present on his features. Asta groaned and smashed his head into the demon's chest. A hiss and a smack on his shoulder showed that he had put too much strength into the headbutt.

"But I wanna marry Sister Lily..." Asta huffed. Maybe he sounded like a child but the past few weeks have drained him greatly, with this specific night taking a toll on him.

**_"Fair, but have you ever considered that maybe Sister Lily doesn't want to get married at all? I mean look at the Vermillion woman and Nero! Who's to say she doesn't just feel like a husband would be too much work? So wouldn't you be happy to be married to a powerful, handsome and loving demon like me?"_ **

"Firstly, I smell bullshit. Secondly, what's a demon's definition of _"handsome_ " because you're certainly not mine. I might just take my chances with the horde of shadowy demons." Asta said without missing a beat.

 ** _"True, you could, but that's not to say it won't get worse. They've been chasing you for quite a while and it's not long before they capture you completely. Especially since after the stunt you pulled, their efforts will now be tripled."_ **The demon said. **_"You could do what you did all this time, but it'll be harder and harder to evade them and you won't have me to spirit you away from danger. You've never really thought what would happen if they actually captured you, did you?"_**

Asta gulped. He didn't really know what they were planning and frankly he has no idea what to expect. The entire situation is _terrifying._ Nothing makes sense anymore and he doesn't have time to actually weigh his options.

"How do i know you're not just going to hurt and manipulate me? You probably set this whole thing up to get me to say yes to this." Asta accused.

_**"On the contrary, had you been completely human, that would've been a variable possibility. But it's strictly forbidden to hurt Babylon. Last time someone tried it, he got his tongue and fingers chopped off."** _

"But you'll passively manipulate me instead?" Asta crossed his arms. The demon looked away from him. " _Don't ignore the question_!"

**_"Maybe, maybe not. But there's no denying that you'll have to make a choice. It's either me and the antimagic I give you or those demons in the underworld and relinquishing your support of humanity."_ **

"Wait, _what?!_ You're joking, _right?!"_ The entire situation made Asta nauseous. Him, going against all of humanity, his friends, _his family, his very being._ It made Asta feel sick.

 _ **"When I said you were lucky to have me, I mean it. Almost all of the devils you've encountered are severely against humans, fully prepared to destroy and conquer kingdoms on the basis of mere whims, and the rest are strictly neutral and in small numbers. You'd be pressured into killing those you once held dear in the future."**_ The demon sighed through his nose. **_"I'm one of the few neutral ones. If you had gotten anyone else, they wouldn't really be giving you much of a choice. They'd probably call you silly for having human attachments."_**

"I genuinely can't tell which is worse."

**_"Then you must choose - be mine or be passed around by the demons of hell like a cheap whore."_ **

"I'm sorry, _what was the other option?!"_ Asta nearly slammed the back of his head into the demon's chin as he yelled in horror. By the looks of how the demon was rubbing his jawline, he probably did.

 ** _"What do you think the "Whore of Babylon" and "Jewel of Demons" titles stand for?"_** The demon raised an eyebrow. Asta blinked, his horror not even close to going away. Suddenly the prospect of marrying his demon wasn't as bad as it sounded. Sure, the whole idea gave him hives but it was a lesser evil compared to the other, more horrendous option.

_"I feel like I'm gonna vomit."_

**_"You can't really vomit in this place. If you did, you'd vomit in the human world too. By the way, what made you try to drown yourself?"_ **

"Luck said a nightcap helps with nightmares. Your brain can't make up nightmares if you're too drunk to make up thoughts and all that."

 ** _"Foolish. You're truly foolish. You're so accident prone, you should just let me take care of things."_** The devil replied.

"No! No I- Listen, i need to think this over. You're basically proposing to me. I can't just go in willy-nilly." Asta said, crossing his arms and staring down the demon. "Plus, you could be lying to me about the "It's only getting harder from here" part. What do you know, you're not the one running around a cave system full of demons!"

The demon didn't seem pleased with his words because his next words were **_"go prove it then"_** and with a snap of his fingers Asta was out like a candle.

* * *

Asta woke up, still sober and head throbbing. He opened his eyes only to be met with a view of an ice floor, a white creepy wall and himself being tangled in his own dress.

His own demon sent him back to this _hellhole, the bastard_. Asta was about to yell profanities at the sky when the sound of humming reached his ears. Distorted, scratchy humming. _He wasn't alone._ There was a demon in the vicinity. And Asta was anywhere from a table length or a whole street away from him.

He quietly turned his head, not daring to even let the fabric of his dress make noise. Then he saw _it._

Most of the demons he had encountered were the usual stuff. A pair of horns, a pair of wings and a tail.

This one had _two of each_. Two pairs of horns, two unfurled pairs of wings and what looked like the largest pair draped over him like a coat. _Danger_ oozed off of this one. Asta wasn't sure if it was his self-preservation instincts, his logic or some deep, premonitioned gut feeling but he knew this guy was stronger than the rest. _Way stronger._

Asta was completely sure that any wrong move could end with his guts smeared across the frozen lake. The demon seemed to be preoccupied however with what seemed to be graphs, papers and what-not levitating around him. Maybe he wouldn't hear him if Asta made a run for it.

Asta slowly, carefully sat up, glancing at the devil every now and then to check that he hadn't noticed he was awake. Asta saw the entrance in the distance.

It was a hole in the wall with small frost patterns on the stairs but it was an exit. Problem is that the exit is about a whole street away and there were skeletons and corpses frozen up to their necks at the entrance. As he looked more towards his position, he realized the closer the body was to the center of the lake, the deeper the body was embedded.

 _Fuck. Fuck, that might just end up being him._ Asta glanced at the devil again. Still focused on books, _alright_. If Asta can tiptoe to the entrance, he can sneak out and prove to his demon bastard that he's overrated and he might not even need his weird protection.

Asta never realized how much he missed Finral up until now. Picking himself and his dress off the ground, Asta walked to the entrance with the roll of his feet.

 _Everything is going to be fine,_ he told himself. _Keep calm, just take it nice and easy._

His anxiety lessened when he got halfway there with the devil still not hearing that he's moved from his spot or even turned his head.

Asta took another careful step as he looked back at the devil. _Still no reaction-_

He heard a crack under his foot. The ice. _The fucking ice cracked._

At the same time, the devil's ears had twitched. Asta looked at the entrance and sprinted off. He ran in reckless abandon.

He heard the devil huff when he was _so close, just a bit more and-_

Asta was suddenly suspended in the air, many meters above the ice and just three meters away from the stairs. He kicked himself forward, tried swimming towards the door but he wasn't even moving an inch. And suddenly he was floating backwards. Towards the devil.

"No, no, no, _nonono- why?!_ " Asta whispered to himself as he kept getting pulled towards the demon. Fear started skyrocketing, Asta kept struggling. He wasn't being held and there wasn't any force moving him, _how does he get out of this-_

 ** _"I appreciate the effort, Babylon, but we should reserve time for... these escapism fantasies for later."_** The devil said and Asta swore it was like he was whispering into his ear. **_"We've lost too much time, both because of this labyrinth and those pesky humans but now-"_**

Asta screeched at the top of his lungs when the devil touched his back. The reaction clearly caught him off guard, because the arm was ripped away and Asta was immediately dropped, causing the fear and adrenaline to make him run at full speed.

_Fuck, fuck, fuck, go faster, legs!_

He wasn't even halfway to where he was when a sudden force slammed him down into the ice, cracking it.

Asta's nails dug into the broken ice and he started dragging himself forward at a feverish pace. It was like climbing with a rock tied to your back and no footing. He continued to climb, arms straining and breath coming out as panicked hyperventilation. He didn't know how far he had gotten but immediately a strong form of pressure pressed down on him, slamming him into the frozen ground. Asta had the air knocked out of him, desperately trying to climb out of the crater the pressure had formed.

He managed to get out of the crater, even with bloody hands, and started to use the skulls and corpses peeking out from the ice as leverage.

A pair of clawed feet came into his view and a hand grabbed him by the cloth on his back, pulling him up. Asta held onto the eye sockets of a skull stuck in the ice for dear life. Instead, the skull had been pulled off the ice along with Asta, leaving the mage with a frozen skull in his hands and a devil holding him by his clothes.

The devil took the skull out of his hands and threw it in a random direction. Asta looked at the devil in fear. Loose locks of long hair fell in front of the demon's face, separated only by the horns on his head.

**_"Babylon, what is the meaning-"_ **

The words of the devil cut off when he looked over his body. He must've seen something as he reached out to touch his torso. Asta, in a moment of self preservation, wrapped his arms around himself, tainting the white dress in blood. _How did_ \- oh, right, Asta dug his fingers into what is seemingly broken glass.

Asta's not sure if it was the disobedience, the blood on his hands or the numerous scars on his arms and torso, but it made the demon seemingly simmer with rage. It probably doesn't help that Asta was acting like he was going to be gutted by the guy, which, in all honesty, seemed very possible considering the demon's mood.

 ** _"Give me your hand."_** The devil said. Asta only pressed his hands closer to himself. They didn't burn or hurt but they were cold. So cold he couldn't feel them. It doesn't help that they're calling him that name. **_"Babylon, why?"_**

" _I'm not Babylon_! I'm not- _I'm human, damn it_! Leave me alone!" Asta yelled at him, feeling himself snap at the seams. He's tired, scared, angry and he just wants to be left in peace. "You, him, everyone here keeps calling me _that stupid name_! Babylon _this_ , Babylon _that, just shut up!_ I'm not a damn demon, I'm human! So leave me alone already! I'm _human, I'm not-"_

Asta choked on his words with sob. Warm liquid cascaded down his face, the tears falling from his face and onto the ice. He didn't even realize he was crying. He's so damn tired of all this. He just wants to _fall asleep and-_

A clawed hand wiped away his tears only for Asta to cry harder. _This was wrong, weird_. Asta's always been mentally resilient, years of jeers and negative remarks have made him so and he still retained his hope and optimism. He shouldn't be breaking down from almost three weeks of nightmares and attempted captures, he shouldn't be crying his eyes out in front of a dangerous demon and he certainly shouldn't just let him try and comfort him.

Why were they acting like this anyway?! They hunted him for sport, not for whatever this is. They're demons, they kill and _hurt people and-_

 ** _"Who told you that?"_** The demon asked, gripping Asta's chin to face him. Asta then realized he had said all of that out loud. _Fuck_. The demon pressed a kiss to his forehead, letting go of his chin and tangling his fingers through his hair. Asta's face heated up. It almost seemed romantic.

 ** _"I knew humans were pathetic but this crosses the line."_** And there went the romantic atmosphere, down into the depths of hell.

"Please, I just wanna go home." Asta breathed out, too tired and drained to pay attention to the demon.

 ** _"This is your home."_** The demon replied, a tiny bit of anguish in his voice. Or maybe Asta was just imagining it. "What did they do to you, sweet Babylon?"

"I'm not Babylon. I'm not. Let me go already."

 ** _"No. Not now, not after this."_** The demon whispered and Asta was brought to the demon's chest, long arms wrapped around him, holding him close. **_"Perhaps we should push forward the Qlipoth plan, those humans seem to have forgotten their lesson from long ago. We'll start with eliminating the worms in your country, wouldn't that be nice? Maybe a few public executions here and a few decapitated heads on spikes there? Whatever punishment you want them to have. Be it the peasants or the king, they're worthless either way."_**

**_Wait a bit longer, and we will take our place as the rightful rulers of the world. All thirteen of us."_ **

Asta didn't hear the last part of what the demon said, drifting out of consciousness.

* * *

"Hey, demon."

_**"Hm?"** _

"I changed my mind, when's the wedding?"

_**"That was fast, dear spouse."** _

"I'd rather deal with one of you than all of them."

_**"Really now? And what was the breaking point?"** _

"Some guy was talking about a plan to kill humans. You're not doing that."

**_"No, you'd hate me forever if I did."_ **

"I would. But you won't do it. So I choose you. Please."

The sound of laughter could be heard.

 ** _"A wise choice, my dearest Asta."_** Asta blushed against his desire not to. Damn demons.

* * *

Several weeks passed and Asta was finally out of his funk. The nightmares had finally stopped and Asta could sleep in peace. Asta could look forward to sleeping and wake up refreshed after three weeks of pure, unfiltered sleep-induced panic.

The Black Bulls were also relieved to see Asta go back to his energetic self. It was unnerving to see Asta tired or somber. One had wondered what kind of nightmares he had seen to become like that.

_As for Asta..._

**"It's ironic, really. Two Vermillions and a Silva are completely enthralled with you yet you have eyes only for the nun. It must be a slap to the face for those three."** The devil said to Asta as the antimagic mage did his daily sets of training.

 _'Hey! Leopold is my rival and Mimosa and Noelle don't feel that way about me! They would've been way more obvious if they did._ ' Asta replied to the devil through the mental link.

 **"Sure, sure. As if trying to win over your attention all the time isn't a sign."** The demon scoffed. **"Well, doesn't matter, you're mine so they should've shot their shot earlier."**

 _'You keep mentioning that. Is it really that big of a deal? I mean this is only marriage of convenience.'_ Asta said. _'And you never said i couldn't marry anyone else while being married.'_

**"A marriage triangle? They'll have to earn my approval first. And between those four, the wind mage and water mage are taking the lead."**

_'Yuno doesn't feel that way. He's my rival!'_

**"Sure, and the weekly letters filled with pressed flowers and minerals from Diamond's borders are purely platonic."** The devil retorted, voice dripping with sarcasm. **"I'm getting the idea that you use the words "rival" and "person who's crushing on me" like it has the same meaning."**

 _'Why would Yuno try to crush me?'_ Asta inquired as he began doing push-ups.

**"Forget what i said, you're hopeless in the romance department. Though it wouldn't be a surprise if Yuno ended up being a runaway noble. You usually have that type of effect on royalty and positions of power. Might be from Spade or Diamond Kingdom. Though maybe Spade is more likely, but that wouldn't make sense unless... Nah, he wouldn't be. He's too much of a recluse."**

_'What? What'd you think of? And Yuno isn't a recluse, he's already made friends in the Golden Dawn and even in the Black Bulls, don't go badmouthing him!'_ Asta yelled into his head and heard the devil wince. If it's one thing Asta had learnt, it's that yelling in his head was a close equivalent of a sandal throw to the demon.

 **"Sure, he's got friends but he doesn't make them often. And I was thinking, hey, Yuno has a magic stone from birth, was chosen by a wind spirit and there was a coup in Spade around the same year you two were found in the church. What if Yuno's a long lost prince from Spade!"** The devil laughed. Asta chuckled a little bit.

_'Okay, yeah, that's a little funny. Yuno is super awkward and a bit detached. He was a real crybaby too when he was a kid. Plus, it'd be weird if they just decided to leave a prince at a church in the middle of nowhere. Wouldn't they have aimed for a noble house or something?'_

**"Exactly! The only way it would make sense if the guy running was on death's door by the time he reached your village. Spade people are resilient and devoted, they've lived in an incredibly cold climate for centuries. Anything that could kill a spade citizen is worth being wary of."**

_'Whatever, you're awfully talkative recently. Is something gonna happen?'_

**"Nah."**

Asta's judgemental silence spoke a thousand words.

**"Okay, fine, something will happen but I'm not sure what. I can tell there's gonna be some demon involvement - a demon's been climbing up the roots of hell, which means he's got a reason for doing so."**

Asta stumbled in one of his push-ups but continued anyway. He was still anxious about the nightmares he had in the Underworld. He wasn't even sure if he'd ever stop being hesitant about the topic.

**"Hey, don't worry your pretty little head, spouse. I'm sure i can take him. He's not like one of the lower levels - he's not weak and we might have some trouble with his magic but I can take him."**

_'You can. But what if I have to? Sure, you're giving me pointers about my power but how are you sure that I'll manage. If we're going to face off a demon in the future, how are you sure we'll be ready?'_

**"We won't."**

' _HUH?!'_ Asta screamed internally as he fell into the grass.

 **"Ow, tone it down! My ears are bleeding!** " The demon yelled at him. **"As I said, we don't know what the guy is planning, all we do know is that he's got a possible way into the human world - which means it could be anything from a small cloud like body to a literal full form. Even with those options, it's unlikely that we're lucky enough to get a small one or unlucky enough to face off a demon with a physical body."**

 _'You're talking to the most unlucky person in the country, you might just jinx us.'_ Asta replied, face buried in the grass. _'But if it's neither, then maybe-'_

 **"A demon host? Maybe. Very likely even. There's quite a few in Spade, so maybe we should watch out for that, but they're more concerned with Diamond. Anyway, even if it's a host, we can't train for a specific method only. You're without magic but you're adaptable. Terrifyingly so. Most of your buddies are. That's what we'll rely on for now."** The demon finished.

_'Hah, okay. But if we get jinxed-'_

**"We won't, trust me. When's the last time a demon got a physical body in the human world? Centuries ago! We'll be fine!"**

* * *

_'Antimagic demon, you fucking jinx.'_

**"Fair enough. Chew me out, dear spouse, but later when both your ass and mine aren't in danger."**

Asta wanted to scream obscenities as he locked eyes with the physical form of the devil that had not only caused the genocide of the elves, but also the entire midnight eye scheme.

This was the very same devil that had seen him nearly jump off a tower many months ago and then proceeded to slam himself out of a window. The same one that had, _by his demon's words,_ assumed he had attempted suicide twice in the same day and saw him nearly drown in the River Styx.

This was gonna be an interesting fight. Key word - _interesting._

The devil had looked at him for a split second, before going back to his business. For a second, Asta had a glimmer of hope that maybe he didn't recognise him.

Hope quickly vanished as the devil spun his head back to look at Asta so fast that the antimagic user could hear his neck crack. After looking Asta up and down, at his grimoire and black markings, the demon fully turned to him, ignoring the leader of the Midnight Eye.

 _ **"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"**_ The demon screeched as he pointed a finger at Asta.

"I COULD ASK YOU THE SAME THING, MISTER _'I HAUNT THE NIGHTMARES OF INNOCENTS BECAUSE I'M BORED'_!" Asta yelled in panic as he waved his sword threateningly at the other devil.

 _ **"Haunt the-"**_ the demon sputtered. **_"You know what, I'll deal with you later, just stand there and be pretty for a bit. I have elves to kill."_**

Before the word magic demon could fully turn around, Asta threw a rock straight into the back of his head. A yell of anger came from the devil as Asta charged a long range attack.

"HEY DEMON!" Asta yelled. The demon turned to him, spite burning in his eyes, and Asta threw the attack straight at him. _"GO BACK TO HELL!"_

* * *

The fight is as tedious as it is mortally perilous and that's not taking into account that Asta's friends, the first Wizard King, the elves _(who were apparently manipulated the entire time to resurrect the demon)_ and several of the captains all nearly had a run in with death of sorts.

In the beginning, the devil seemed to single him out by trying to restrain him. Gravity, familiar snares, even weird creatures from hell that he's seen in his nightmares at times, whatever he had in mind.

It took up until the demon had to literally regenerate from his heart to get it through that the only way Asta will stay down is if he's knocked unconscious.

 _Boy, wasn't that a fun experience_. Asta is pretty sure he's gonna have nightmares of the heart literally rebuilding a whole body from scratch.

He's not sure how they've all managed to win but by chipping away at the enemy's body and his demon actually getting off his ass and doing something, a decisive blow was dealt by Asta, of all people.

Just as the demon was disintegrating, Asta heard it.

 _ **"In the very least, it's an honour to die by Babylon's hand. That I may be proud of."**_ The demon rasped, barely eligible from a distance.

 **"Forgive me, Babylon."** The word soul demon spoke into Asta's head. **"This one has failed to protect not once, but thrice. Perhaps this is not honour but punishment."**

Asta flinched. He hadn't been called that in months. He almost forgot what he was. Almost. He didn't understand, just why were these demons so attached to Babylon? Who were they? What did they do? What is he supposed to do?

 _'Demon.'_ Asta spoke to the demon, who was barely a torso at this point. _'What is your name?'_

 _ **"Za... gred..."**_ the demon breathed out.

 _'Zagred. The fallen wait for you in the ruins of Babylon.'_ Asta replied, wondering why he felt the need to give the dying demon some form of goodbye. The phrase had only come to mind recently, but judging by how the demon's eyes widened and seemingly watered, it was the right choice. The demon only gave out a last breath and closed his eyes as the disintegration reached his head.

As the final pieces of Zagred turned to nothing, Asta's body went slack. The pain of previous injuries, muscle pain and fatigue came crashing down as he fell, his transformation having run out of time.

Before he could fall, Yuno caught him and his grimoire midair. Asta was having a hard time breathing.

 **"Smooth words back there. Not sure if he deserved them though."** His demon said in his mind. Asta made a questioning noise at him. **"What you said are parting words in the Underworld. For Babylon to say that to a dying demon is to honour the death of one. He died, sure, but he died with a ray of hope."**

Asta closed his eyes for a minute simply to process all that. Zagred, who had seen a misunderstanding of him try to end himself, had devoted his last words to apologise to him for failing him. In return, Asta had made the last thing he heard a promise of something better, of a seemingly open path to hope.

Zagred desired to _"save"_ Asta by killing the elves, humans and even his devil but ended up being _"saved"_ by him in the last minute through death.

 _'Ironic.'_ Asta thought.

 **"Your whole life is nothing but irony."** The demon said to Asta. **"Now get out of here before the whole place goes tits up."**

* * *

Even after escaping the Shadow Palace, everything still drains Asta. From the first Wizard King parting with Nero to the very news of the Wizard King dying.

Except he's not dead, he's a child now. _A child shorter than Asta._ And the antimagic mage is far too tired to even begin doing the mental gymnastics of how that happened. He hasn't been this tired since the nightmares.

And then he declared that he had lost influence, Clover Kingdom might get destroyed by the other kingdoms and Asta will die.

At the sound of the possibility of Asta dying, the antimagic demon had yelled up a storm of demands: _who, where, how, why, when does he get to kill them._

Asta was partially sure the demon would've left some intel about that just to get the other devils working against that. But whatever assassination attempts the other could've plotted quickly died down upon the given reason.

Asta's power, _in essence,_ came from a demon. This whole catastrophe was made by one and the House of Kira, trying to preserve its military force and the nobility of Clover, will use Asta as a scapegoat.

The devil had only tsked and gone quiet upon hearing the reason.

"Wait- but this demon power _does_ hurt Asta!" Noelle suddenly piped up. Asta was taken aback. She turned to Captain Yami. "Captain, remember when we healed Asta's arms in the Witch Forest and right after that he had reoccurring nightmares for almost a month?! Asta used that transformation for the first time in the Witchs' Forest. _It all makes sense."_

For a minute, Asta had wished Noelle hadn't brought up those nightmares.

"Nightmares?" Julius inquired. "I... don't quite follow."

"Upon Asta awakening demonic powers, he had suffered from almost nightly nightmares. And it's actually possible that it has a connection to the demon." Nero added from the top of Asta's head. "The two incidents were too close to be simply a coincidence. However, they left unexpectedly after Luck had made Asta drink a nightcap."

"The nightmares weren't _that_ bad, you don't have to worry!" Asta put up a defence.

"You sounded like you were running for your life while dreaming during some nights. It woke me up sometimes." Asta wondered if throwing Nero out of the window would be considered attempted murder, because while he deeply valued her he also wished she'd just stop talking about it. All eyes turned on him and Asta suddenly felt small in the room.

 **"Asta."** His demon spoke up. **"You should tell them. At least while nobody is watching you. You can't keep repressing it. You either tell them or they find out through _them."_**

Asta knows what the demon means by _them._

Asta's hands clenched at his sides. He wants to leave it behind. Pretend that those nightmares were just that - _nightmares._ That he wasn't sought out or even connected to demons. That he wasn't some reincarnation of some person who actively wanted to destroy humans or that he was supposed to conquer the continent.

He's not Babylon. _He didn't want to be Babylon._

"Asta?" Mimosa touched his shoulder. "You look... pale. Are you sure you're okay?"

Asta took a shaky breath. Mimosa wouldn't tell anyone. Noelle would understand due to how her family treated her and would keep it with her to the grave. Captain Yami wasn't talkative about squad secrets. Julius would respect victim confidentiality.

" _I..._ I didn't want to accept it but- I think those nightmares weren't _just_ nightmares." Asta began. "It's... it felt so lucid and I couldn't even have time to think about it. I was so focused on escaping and surviving that I didn't realize where I was. When I did it... it was too late. It kept happening over and over again."

"What happened exactly?"

"I... I think i went to the underworld. Or was thrown in there. When that creepy guy opened that portal, the creatures that came out were the same ones I encountered. It was like running in a maze - the more you run, the more lost you get."

Yami and Julius were both getting suspicious. It wasn't like Asta to beat around the bush. Something must be up.

"Shrimp, are these nightmares... _personal?_ " Yami inquired. Maybe personal was the wrong word. Asta seemed uncomfortable just by thinking about it. Yami had noticed that the brat had nightmares, as he was more sluggish and depressed during that time. He had worried about it but seeing how he had bounced back at the time made him realize he didn't have to.

Now he was wondering if he should've asked more.

"It's not personal so much as... terrifying. I don't like remembering it. The caverns, the ice, _the demons-"_

 _"Demons?!_ " Mimosa exclaimed. Asta winced.

"Yeah... that's the worst part. I think they're using me as a source of enrichment."

"Enrichment?"

"They've been hunting me down in my nightmares for three weeks straight. I'm not sure how I managed to slip away for so long." Asta bemoaned. "Getting caught was... _awful."_

Mimosa put a hand on Asta's shoulder, perhaps in an attempt to comfort him.

"That's... I'm not really sure how to describe that. Do you have any idea why they would do something like that?"

"They called me something. Like a name. They called me Babylon." Asta finally admitted. Almost nobody reacted to the name except for a raised eyebrow.

 _Nobody except Julius,_ whose eyes widened in recognition and sweat trailed down the side of his head. He turned to Yami.

"Yami, check with your ki. Is there anyone near the office?"

"None. Why the sudden security check?" Yami inquired, seemingly on edge.

"As of this point, what we shall speak about is to _not, under any circumstances, leave this room._ If information this sensitive were to leak, we'd fall into a domino effect so grave that this incident wouldn't hold a candle. Asta's death might just be set in stone if it does." Julius said, unmistakably shaken and serious. It earned some terrified looks from the trio of magic knights. He turned to Asta. "Asta, I want you to be _as honest as possible._ Are you sure they called you Babylon?"

"...Yes." Asta said, not being able to look at the Magic Emperor longer than he could. The sudden declaration of it made him uneasy. Tense. Paranoid. It was hard to think, to comb through those memories of dreams.

"Did they-"

 _"I don't want to talk about it!"_ Asta suddenly blurted out. Then came silence.

"Oh Asta. I'm sorry." Julius finally said, his voice filled with such guilt, as if Asta had been subjugated to torture in hell and it was his fault. He pulled Asta into a hug. " _I'm so sorry._ Nobody should have experienced what you did. You don't have to say what they did to you. _It's not your fault."_

"Lord Julius?" Asta now sounded genuinely confused. Should he provide context? He was chased around, _yes, but-_

 _Or was that really all it was?_ They may have just hunted him, but in those three weeks Asta had felt so weak, so helpless, _so afraid_ that the only thing that stopped him from breaking out into a cold sweat was the fact that he had come to terms with the existence of demons.

 _He really felt like he was in hell, regardless of how the demons viewed him_.

He sniffed, rubbing at his burning eyes. No, no crying. _Not now._

Two more pairs of hands wrapped around Asta. Mimosa and Noelle ahead joined in on the hugfest.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell us. Just go at your own pace." Mimosa said.

"But if anything close to that happens, remember you have people you can rely on. You've got me, remember? I'm royalty, so if anyone tries to hurt you, we'll send them back in pieces." Noelle added, arms squeezing around him.

Asta wrapped his arms around the trio and hugged back. This was... comforting. Very comforting. Asta felt lighter, like a rock had been lifted off his shoulders.

"Thanks. _I mean it._ " Asta replied, digging his face into the crook of Noelle's shoulder.

"Well would you look at that. Haven't seen you all acting mushy in a long time." Yami piped up. " _Well_ , Julius? What do we do about this?"

Julius broke the hug and cleared his throat.

"As i said, this information is strictly confidential. I trust that you all know not to even mention it, as Asta's life could be brought to severe danger. I'm not legally permitted to give you all the details, but Babylon is considered an asset to the forbidden dimension. One that, up until almost a millenia ago, was constantly present. I can imagine that they're going to try and restore it at a moment's notice. But as long as this information is safe, then nothing will change. Asta is Asta, regardless of his status to demons and it's best that it stays that way. _Do you understand?"_

 _"Yes, sir!"_ The magic knights said in unison.

"Good. Then you are dismissed. Except Yami, I need to discuss something with you." Julius said, stopping the captain from leaving. Yami waved off the other four, telling them to meet up with the rest of the squad. Once the footsteps had faded away, Julius went behind his table and sighed. "You might want to steel yourself."

"What's this all about?"

"While I did intend to explain what the title of Babylon meant, seeing Asta's reaction showed that he had already found out the hard way or just knows a few details but if he were to find out, it would hurt him greatly." Julius said as he sat back into his chair. "But Yami, since you are his captain and in essence responsible for him, you need to know this."

Yami's expression soured.

"This isn't good, is it?"

"No. Not at all. Judging by Asta's reactions... I'm afraid he may have been sexually assaulted by demons, more than once even." Julius said gravely, as if he hadn't just dropped a bomb. The table cracked under Yami's grip.

 _"What?"_ Yami's tone was downright murderous and if Julius had been a lesser man he would've flinched under the tone.

"You might want to sit down for this. There's a lot..." Julius began, a somber expression washing over him. "To think that Babylon reincarnated as Asta... I'm not sure how likely this situation would have been, but if you look outside the box, it lines up."

"What are you talking about, Julius?! What do you mean _"reincarnated"? And who's Babylon?"_ Yami said as he yanked a chair to him.

"I'm not surprised you don't know - Babylon is a historical figure, one that predates even the Wizard King. There's very little information of them in the royal library but one is certain - they're the first recorded demon host and, _even to this day,_ the most powerful." Julius explained.

"That doesn't explain how he could've been sexually assaulted in his nightmares." Yami grit out, finishing his cigarette. _He pulled out another._

"Babylon was said to have had multiple forms of magic - not just two like the Diamond Kingdom's experiments. Only ten were mentioned, but there could be more. This was brought upon by deals with demons but the physical description doesn't describe any form of _weg_." Julius continued.

_"You don't mean-"_

"Babylon had gained the title of Whore of Babylon, for exchanging their body for power. They died in a catastrophic event for some reason but that's all I have of their death. There wasn't any mention of whether or not they annulled the contract with their demons. By that idea, they must still think they're entitled to... _their side of the bargain."_ Julius had barely said those last words, disgust and regret clogging his throat.

 _"Damn bastards._ They must've seen Asta being their reincarnation _and- fuck, i should've noticed._ How did the brat survive for so long? _How'd he even get out_?" Yami bit out as he finished the second cigarette. _God, he was burning through these like pape_ r. The bitter aftertaste and nicotine did nothing to alleviate the hurt.

"I don't know, I can only assume he made contact with the demon inside his grimoire. Maybe he created a buffer of sorts to stop Asta from slipping into the underworld at night. We don't know and interrogating Asta would only worsen whatever damage he experienced."

 _"Fuck,_ he really got the short end of the stick in life. No mana, no answers and now he's hunted by demons _who can't take no for an answer._ " Yami grit out but maybe that second part wasn't so true anymore. "Do you think we could put an anti-demon ward on him?"

"If there was one, then you'd be the first to know."

"Shit. How many devils do you think he punched down there just to escape by a hair's length? Must be in the double digits, judging by how that demon kept trying to restrain him."

"Perhaps that's the reason why Asta was born without any mana - it must've been expected of him to make deals with more than one devil."

"How do we know it won't take a toll on his body? We all know what happened when he used that black form of his." Yami pointed his third, halfway burned cigarette at the Wizard King.

"Because Asta's soul can directly traverse through the Underworld and this world. He's like a metaphysical gate for demons, and there's no outright limit as to how many he can make - as long as each contract has time to settle in, it can be anything from one to a hundred. We're lucky Asta is as stubborn as he is, otherwise I won't be able to save him from the upcoming trial." Julius sighed. "But if worst comes to shove, those trips to the underworld might return. I have a last minute resort to put through, in case worst comes to shove, but that would mean Asta would have to travel further up north."

 _"There's demons in Spade, Julius._ Our best bet is Heart Kingdom and you know how paranoid they are." Yami warned. The third cigarette was done and Yami had to stop himself from grabbing a fourth.

 _"I know,_ I don't like it either, especially since this could worsen the situation in Spade but it's our last resort. If Asta is sentenced to an execution, we'll have no choice but to use it."

Yami grit his teeth. _Those damn demon bastards, even when they're dead they're still a pain in the ass,_ he thought.

Unknowing to anyone, a misunderstanding of the century was brewing, one that would cause the rumor mill of hell to go on a rampage.

* * *

When Asta fell asleep that night, he expected another dreamless slumber or talking to his demon again.

 _Not waking up the hellscape of demons again_. The minute he opened his eyes and felt the cold floor of the caverns, he wondered if he should've just gone back to sleep. He doesn't have an inch of mental energy left after today - the mission to break into the Midnight Eye hideout, the elf reincarnation fiasco, Zagred, the talk with Lord Julius. Asta just does not have the energy to play this game of cat and mouse and mixed signals.

But by the sound of footsteps and claws raking against the walls in the distance, playing possum was not an option.

'Or was it?' Asta thought. He's never actually played dead. But assuming that demons can smell fear or hear heartbeats, they'd know immediately. So all Asta could do was groan inwardly and roll onto his back.

Only to fall off a ledge upon rolling.

Asta yelled out in fear as he felt himself fall. Luckily, the fall wasn't long enough to break any bones but it hurt enough to leave a bruise and kick up the dust on the ground. Asta coughed up the dust and sat up.

_"What... the hell..."_

This was the first time he had fallen and not ended up in the red and black water. _Something was amiss. His demon usually found-_

 _Wait. What if Zagred's death had alerted the other demons and they found the Antimagic demon?_ Asta was fucked if that were the case.

Hearing the footsteps draw closer, Asta quickly looked around for an escape. A tunnel, just a little above his height, was to his left and the mage immediately jumped into it.

The tunnel had led to a labyrinth of more tunnels, twisting and turning at every point. Asta had gone in random turns but with the general idea of going straight forward.

The further he got, the more he noticed that a light was coming from one of the tunnels. An exit. Asta sighed in relief.

The bunched up fabric of his dress fell forward. Except it's no longer white. It's deep rich red, just barely illuminated by the light of the tunnel. Asta looked down on his attire. The dress had stayed the same, with the exception of the change of color. The gold belt had stayed the same but Asta had a feeling that it wouldn't be for long.

 _'Is... that bad?'_ Asta thought as he took the fabric and threw it backwards, kicking up the dust in tunnels.

There was a lot of dust in the tunnels and Asta had tried to hold his sneezes in but one had gotten out before he could stop it.

He froze as he heard the sneeze echo through the tunnels. Asta waits for something, anything. But there's nothing. He let out a sigh before continuing onwards.

He finally gets to the source of the light - a hole in the wall, chipped and loose, giving way to the light outside. It's Asta's best bet at getting out of the tunnels but it's too small for him. If he pushes some rocks and what-not off the wall, it could become big enough for him to crawl through.

He pushes and picks at the rocks and they fall apart easily enough so that Asta can push through into the room.

He's greeted by a large, frozen room, high above the floor and with three demons - _Four Horns, as Asta has begun to call him, a familiar one and one new_ \- looking at him from below with wide eyes.

Asta then realizes he's popped into the worst possible situation and immediately starts crawling backwards with increasingly panicked movements.

A hand slid into the hole and nearly grabbed Asta, who rolled backwards to evade. This ends with the hand grabbing him by his thigh and squeezing. Asta squealed.

 ** _"What strong thighs you have, I'd love to work you open between them."_** The demon, the one with ram horns, whispers, but Asta could hear it as if it were in his head, from the other side as the thumb caressed the muscle on his leg. The mage sputtered at the obvious flirtation. Asta grabbed the corners of the tunnels to stop himself from getting pulled out by his leg. ** _"Come back to us, Babylon, we've missed you so dearly. Let us worship you once more, just like before."_**

The trill at the end of the sentence makes Asta kick the hand off his thigh and propel himself backwards, outside of the demon's reach. The demon shouts in pain and another, longer arm comes in to grab him again, but luckily Asta is far enough away.

 ** _"Babylon, get out here this instant! Who stole you away?! What low-level imp thought he could keep you away from us?! Answer us! What human filth dared to seal you away?!"_** Yelled another, different demon, most likely the new one. Asta's head was hurting from the volume as he kept crawling backwards. The hand was moving around, trying to feel where he was. It receded and was replaced by a red eye peering in through the hole. It focused on him and Asta took this as a sign to get out.

He started crawling back from when he went, narrowly avoiding an arm that popped out of a portal. He couldn't go out there, so he had to get to the original entrance.

After several hurried twists and turns, Asta got closer to the entrance of the tunnel. Only to hear voices on the other side. Crap, they found the entrance, he has to find another way out. He turned to the left. Maybe he'd find something there.

A sudden sound of scuttling made him freeze. They... they didn't actually send those creatures after him, _right?_

_... Oh god, they did._

Asta quickened the pace of his crawling.

A ray of hope in the form of an entrance through several stalagmites. Asta squeezed through the rocks and was about to make a run for it when something yanked his dress back, tripping him. The sound of fabric tearing echoed through the cave. The dress was ripped, making a diagonal and jagged line from the middle of his left thigh to his right calf. The fabric was stuck to one of the stalagmites.

"... That's not a bad thing, right?" Asta said out loud. He was really used to his demon answering him every now and then so the silence only made him worry more. He shook his head. _This wasn't the time for distractions_! He had to either find the antimagic demon or find a way out himself.

...Easier said than done because Asta wasn't sure where he even was, much less if this place even had an exit. He prodded at the back of his mind where the demon usually was but without any reaction. W _ait, did they-_

_Did Zagred give a last message to the other demons before he died and they tracked them through that? Bastard! Even after he gave him a goodbye!_

But judging by the fact that they didn't actually know about the antimagic demon meant that he's safe. _For now._

Hurried footsteps and the flapping of wings came from the distance. Asta immediately started running in the opposite direction.

 _Okay, crap, he'll cuss Zagred's corpse out later,_ he has to escape first. Or hide. Well, hiding isn't an option because of the rags on the stalagmites, so he has to run.

He gets pretty far, in his opinion, and the fabric on the stalagmites gives him a whopping ten seconds to get ahead of them. It also, much to his dismay, spurs on the demons to the point where he first hears loud, emotional yells and then pure silence, with the exception of footsteps.

 _It's like a horror story._ He'd rather have loud and terrifying noises than no noise at all.

There's footsteps. A lot of them. More than just two or three demons are chasing him.

It's a whole squadron of demons, with each their own insane and overpowered forms of magic, chasing Asta with the skills of a veteran hunting party.

 _Asta is going to fucking die._ Everything from the floor to the lack of lighting is gonna kill him.

 _No_ , Asta realizes, he can't die because apparently the demons are possessive and severely attached to him. However, instead of dying it's likely that Asta will get fucked - literally and figuratively - within an inch of his life, which is questionably worse in his opinion.

Even the Antimagic Demon, _despite his nasty attitude and strong front_ , never went far in the romance department of their so-called marriage. Soft kisses on the edge of one's lips, cheeky nicknames and little affectionate gestures seemed out of place for Antima but Asta liked them either way. He still couldn't get used to the gestures, blushing up a storm, whether they're soft and long or short and strong.

Asta would also prefer to keep it that way, for now at least.

After that, Asta's brain had all but gone on autopilot, focusing on reflexes and avoiding getting caught.

Demons had come for him almost as if out of the walls themselves and Asta had done everything from throwing rocks to wall running to avoid them. A long run through the caverns, several near run-ins with the demons and throwing one of them into the other was what it took to shake them off.

"Holy shit, _holy shit, holy shit- where are you damn it!?_ " Asta mumbled to himself, poking and prodding at the place in his mind where his demon would be. He's not captured but then where is he?! Asta can only run so much until he gets caught and hiding spots can easily be found if someone looks for them.

Just as he was about to turn and run into another smaller tunnel, something grabbed and slammed him into a nearby wall. Which ended up kicking up more dust.

 _"God,_ what's with all the dust in this place?! Does nobody here know how to clean?!" Asta exclaimed in between his coughs.

 ** _"You."_ **Said a menacing voice from above Asta. There were two large hands pinning his arms to the wall, effectively restraining them. Looking above, he realized just how short he was in comparison to these demons. The one pinning him to the wall was the new one he saw in Lucifero's ice room. **_"You have been gone for centuries, finally return only to throw yourself off Zagred's domain and attempt to drown in the River Styx, disappear for months after doing so, come back with a demon pact from some unknown devil and all you can think about is the dust?"_**

Asta really had nothing to say to that. Except his brain had no control over what he says and his mouth has no filter.

"Well, I am the cleaning in the building I live in, so you can imagine how much this bothers me. This is a lot even for six months." Asta said. The demon glowered, clearly not liking his answer.

 ** _"If it bothers you so much, I'm sure you'd love to do something about it. You'll have all the time in the world too,"_** the devil said and leaned in to face Asta, _**"because you're not going anywher-"**_

Asta had once read a book. _Shocking_ , yes, but sometimes the days were slow and Asta couldn't train all day, so using his brain was necessary either way. He found a book called "The Art of War" but he couldn't remember the author. However, one particular quote stood out to him: _the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting._

"I'm so sorry for this." Asta said.

So Asta took these words to heart, swallowed his pride, shame, secondhand pain and remorse and kicked the demon in between the legs with all the might his legs and core body strength could give out.

The result was instantaneous. The demon had let him go, screamed in pain and doubled over as Asta made a run for it.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry but I really can't stay!" Asta yelled as he ran through halls and passages.

Asta ran through a hallway and stopped before he could fly over the edge. He had gotten into the staircase. At least, that's what he called it.

The whole room was similar to an opening for a spiral staircase that got smaller and smaller the deeper it went, ending with a narrow and steep staircase into Four Horns' ice room. The so-called roots of the Underworld. Asta had gotten the gist that time and space didn't work properly in this place, as he could be on the top of the staircase at one point and end up on the second lowest at a moments' notice.

This was Asta's best bet at getting out of here. To climb up the roots. He'd never gotten far, always slipping on one of the black roots and falling or simply by not watching his step. He's never been to the top, but if Zagred had climbed there to reach the human world, Asta could get closer to waking up by that logic.

_Right?_

Asta slapped the side of his face. _Now wasn't the time to get sidetracked, he had to get out of here_. Turning to the roots, Asta hastily made his way up. He had gotten halfway to where he had reached the furthest when a tremor went through the cave. Asta grabbed onto a wall to stop himself from slipping.

A sudden fluctuation of ki beneath him made him leap away from his position. Several large shards of ice were thrown from below into the place he was standing. He looked down to see Four Horns and the ram horned demon at the bottom, with more shards of ice levitating near the former.

Asta involuntarily grabbed the scar on his stomach. This felt way too similar to the first dungeon but Asta knew that there's no talking this guy out of mortally hurting him. He scrambled off to run forward.

The action didn't go unnoticed but essentially nothing changed, except for the fact that Four Horns summoned large icicles from below and began launching them into the stairways and roots in front of Asta.

Asta bit the inside of his cheek and began hurdling himself over the icicles, even using them to propel himself forward.

More rumbling came and Asta slipped. He just barely managed to grab onto the edge of the root and haul himself up.

Letting out a curse, he was about to move forward when a giant jagged block of ice, arguably the size of a demon, launched itself behind him. Asta grabbed onto a wall to stop himself from falling. More crashes resonated.

Asta looked up and saw how more blocks of ice were imbedded in front of him and further up his path, essentially preventing him from going that route. Asta cursed. _That was one of his only way out-_

Suddenly Asta saw something. The edges of the debris and ice were pretty close to each other _so maybe-_

Asta grabbed onto the wall, quickly jumped up on the block in front of him and ran up to the one above him, essentially climbing and jumping across the ice and broken roots upwards.

Asta dodged more ice shards thrown his way until something black nearly struck him in the legs. He dodged it with a roll and saw that the ram horned demon was gaining on him, jumping off the ice shards towards him.

Asta rolled down into a block below him to avoid the demon's claws, which left marks as deep and thick as bones in the ice.

Asta flinched and ran into a nearby cavern, running as fast as possible. His eyes scanned the halls and the turns, running anywhere in hopes of losing the demon hot on his trail.

A small hole in the wall caught his eye. _An opportunity!_

Asta all but launched himself into the hole, crawling through and crawled to the other side.

The sound of running water reached Asta and he sped up and out of the cavern into the more illuminated part of the system. He had entered what seemed to be an external passage, a tall area that seemed to only have a ceiling and a cliff, which he was standing on.

Asta briskly walked to the edge of the cliff and peered down.

" _THAT'S_ THE RIVER?!" Asta exclaimed. Indeed, beneath him was the river he had previously floated in, but the difference here was that Asta no longer drunk and saw the horrors of the place.

The river had a polluted, dark grey colour with seemingly no shore. Wispy souls rose to the surface, either peace or anguish on their faces, before going back down into the river below, letting a new soul float to the surface in their place. The current was fast, leaving foam in its wake against the occasional stalagmite that came from beneath the water.

It looked like _a river of floating bodies_ , if Asta hadn't known what a soul looked like, thanks to freeing the elves with antimagic. And Asta had previously taken a dip in there.

"How am I not dead yet?" Asta wondered out loud. A sudden crash resounds in the distance. A roar of the word _"Babylon"_ and loud threats of breaking his legs echoed through the caves. Four Horns was coming.

 _Shit._ Asta looked around. Outside of jumping into the river full of dead people and souls, there was a small ledge like stairway to his side. Asta ran for it.

Pressing himself close to the wall and grabbing loose edges of rock for stability, he started slowly but surely tiptoe down the ledge.

 _'Demon?! Antimagic demon, where are you?! I'm three minutes away from having my legs chopped off, please say something damn it! Antima, wake up, please!'_ Asta yelled internally, mentally searching for the wispy demon as he walked.

The path went downwards and Asta kept his track for a good while before a nauseous force pressed down on the entire area. He froze, hoping that the demon wouldn't hear him.

Asta couldn't hear or see the four horned demon, but once the pressure was gone, it could be assumed that he was too. Asta sighed through his nose and continued his journey.

Upon placing his foot forward, some of the footing crumbled, making him yelp in surprise as his body nearly slipped and the rock of the cascaded down the rocky wall and into the water. _Double shit._

Instead of the usual pressure, it seemed as though everything started levitating. The stones, the dust, Asta himself, even the bubbles of water from the river started rising. Asta was lifted off the ledge and in a moment of panic started climbing up the rock wall with whatever his fingers could grab.

A large gust of wind came from the direction of the cliff. Fuck, fuck, please don't be what Asta thinks it is.

The sudden levitation spell abruptly ended, forcing Asta to hang off a few disjointed rocks. He thanked his training.

**_"Found you."_ **

Asta looked above him to see the four horned demon standing on the wall, wings spread and tail lashing out. If it had not been for the hair falling along with gravity to reveal his enraged face, Asta wouldn't have been able to tell that he was actually sticking to the wall.

Asta gulped. He looked mad. Really mad. Furious in an almost calm and collected way. Asta was sweating bullets from the gaze Four Horns gave him.

"... Lovely view you got here. Really," Asta started, desperately trying to hold on with a nervous smile brandished on his face, "really sets the mood."

Four Horns' eyes narrowed. Asta mentally kicked himself and, _in a last ditch attempt,_ the place in his mind where the demon was. _Why did he think buttering up Four Horns was a good idea?!_

 ** _"You have quite the spine for pulling the stunts you've pulled, Babylon."_** Four Horns began.

"How many times do I have to tell you this? I'm not Babylon!" Asta countered, his facade falling off his face. "I don't even know who you are! Outside of your adress that is. I don't know anyone's name and you're all hunting me like the end of the world is coming if you don't get me."

Something changed in Four Horns' posture. Or his aura in general. Gone was the burning fury and rage, replaced by something Asta couldn't focus on. The demon's ki had abruptly changed and Asta could quite get a grip on how or why.

 ** _"You... don't remember?"_** The demon began. Asta shook his head. **_"The first gate?"_** Asta shook his head again. **_"The rise of the four kingdoms?"_** Another negative answer. **_"The first advent of the Qlipoth?"_** Negative again. **_"Not even your first demon, Satanael?"_**

"No." Asta answered, profoundly confused. Satanael and Qlipoth were two very separate names that Asta doesn't even know existed. They felt... weird. Familiar but it left a bittersweet taste in his mouth. It didn't help that the Qlipoth sounded a lot like the Apostles of Sephiroth. "Am I supposed to?"

Four Horns didn't answer. He just... stared at Asta like he was his biggest mistake. It was unnerving.

 ** _"...You don't remember. You don't remember._** " Four Horns repeated. He fell silent, shoulders shaking as Asta wondered if he had said something wrong. And then _he started laughing._

Four Horns was laughing like Asta not knowing anything was the obvious thing in the world and he saw it only now. The laugh rang across the cave, causing several stalagmites to fall from the ceiling.

 _ **"Of course, of course! It all makes sense now! The lack of contract, the escapistic games, the human indoctrination- it all makes sense now!"**_ The demon laughed, a hand sneaking it's way up to his face to hold it, or to face palm himself. **_"They sealed your memories. The human insects realised who you were and sealed your memories, your very being away. They couldn't bring themselves to have a being like you around and among them. They made you throw away your true self."_**

Asta was partially sure Four Horns was going _insane_. The behavior was very similar to what Asta had gone through on his previous journey here - denial, delusions and a mental breakdown. But for some reason, somehow Asta felt like Four Horns had said something right, but couldn't pinpoint what.

Four Horns was becoming increasingly mentally unstable and Asta didn't want to stay for long to find out what that entailed.

 **"Asta?! Where are you?!"** Came a scratchy voice from inside Asta's head. Antima. Holy shit, Asta had never been so relieved to hear his voice.

 _'RIVER, RIVER, ABOVE THE RIVER ON THE WALL, FOUR HORNS LOOKS LIKE HE'S ABOUT TO BLOW A FUSE!'_ Asta yelled, panic overtaking him.

Lucifer suddenly snapped his head to look at Asta. _Oh, he heard that._

"Shit." Asta and Antima both said in unison. Four Horns made a grab for Asta and Asta, in a moment of great muscle memory association, let go of the rocks and fell down into the river.

Four Horns launched himself after Asta and just as he was about to grab him, his eyes widened as he saw something behind Asta. Antimagic flooded into the cavern, blinding both of them, and two arms grabbed Asta and pulled him backwards, the dark energy clouding his vision.

Once the darkness had receded and the red world was there again, Asta could finally breathe. The labored breathing and the rasps of his demon was all that could be heard, the demon's strong arms wrapped around his body like molded iron. It sounded like he had come in a hurry, practically racing to find him.

There was a moment of peace.

"Did- did they catch you?" Asta asked, still reeling from being chased through the caverns by ten whole demons and borderline killed by invisible pressure. They chased him like if they didn't catch him, the world would end with a flood.

 **"No. Did they catch you?"** The demon replied.

"Almost. Almost but no." Asta breathed out. "Where were you? I thought they found you and locked you up for keeping me away. That Zagred snitched on you."

 ** _"I passed out before I could stop you from drifting. Too much antimagic was used today, I was knocked out the minute you threw yourself on the bed."_** The demon said, arms squeezing around him as if to check that Asta was real. **_"They nearly got you."_**

"They weren't like this. It was usually just one or two but now-" Asta choked on his breath, adrenaline making him stutter his words. "It's like every demon went on a manhunt for me. _Even Four Horns. They're never this aggressive."_

 ** _"Lucifero..."_** the demon grit out. ** _"They must've panicked when you decided to not show up for the past six months. Can't blame them for the reaction but I'm still pissed at the whole thing."_**

"The double horned guy is Lucifero?" Asta asked, still not being able to digest the whole situation.

 ** _"Don't say his name. I don't want his or his two bootlickers' names coming out of your mouth."_** The demon said as a hand shot from under him to pinch his cheeks. **_"Got it? Or I'll be demanding you to do your spousal duties."_**

"...You know what, I don't wanna know. Do you have a feud with him?"

 ** _"Sort of..."_** the demon replied. **_"Bastard stole everything from me. I'll never forgive him."_**

Asta wasn't sure what names meant for demons but by the sound of antimagic simmering, it must've meant a lot. Names and identities are important to humans too. But Asta has never had something like that from the beginning. He had always been Asta - an orphan from a small village, _no family name and no past. A nobody._

He didn't want to be the Wizard King for the title, he wanted to be him to help commoners, to help those in need, to help those like him.

But if someone had stolen his name started hurting those in need? Asta would go insane with wrath. So he wiggled around in the demon's hold, turned to him and hugged him.

**_"...What are you doing?"_ **

"It's a hug, I'm comforting you." Asta said softly.

**_"For someone so scared of demons, you sure like jumping head first to help one, dear spouse."_ **

"Do you want me to let go?"

 ** _"No."_** The demon said, arms tightening around Asta. **_"Don't let go of me."_**


	2. Are you losing yourself? Will you lose it for me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asta's trial leads him to heart kingdom which ends up with him losing damn near both arms and officially tying the knot, much to the dismay of demons and suitors alike. The demons are planning a coup on each other and Nachr suffers from last minute demonic wedding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: LADIES GENTS, WELCOME TO CHAPTER 2. I am also realising that while i have a theoretical ending in mind, it might change with the flow of the series so this fic? No idea how many chaps.
> 
> CHAPTER WARNINGS: HUGE MANGA SPOILERS (up to 270), gore warning (someone gets stabbed, someone gets burned, Dante's nasty ass magic, someone gets theri face fucked up), non concensual touching, suicidal ideation/behavior, panic attacks, Lucifero being horny, description of burn scars.

The trial went as bad as Asta expected. No, in fact, he'd argue it went _worse._

The trial was as unfair as one might expect, with the majority of the judges being composed of nobility led by the Kira House and the accused being a commoner and a girl with horns and no previous records beyond that point.

But the worst part is that they used a child against him. And not just any child, they used Marie. _Marie,_ an orphan who had nothing but her older brother.

Asta was partially sure the Antimagic demon was biting his tongue to stop any distracting comments. But the ire he felt under his skin when he used the power was there, just a minute before boiling over.

Asta's not sure if the Black Bulls busting into the courthouse was a favor in his side or the nobles, who would've been all but dust if the demon had taken over. Nonetheless, no casualties were made.

But that's not to say Asta was deemed innocent. Sure, he wasn't put on _death penalty_ but he was still technically exiled until further notice. If he could find a way to prove his innocence or use, he'd be deemed just.

Asta plopped down on his bed, deep in thought.

_'Hey, can i visit the Underworld?'_ Asta asked.

**"After the chaos that happened last week, you nearly getting caught six times, you want to go back? Have you finally lost your mind?"** The demon gave him a mental flick to the forehead. **"Or do you actually like getting chased around a cave?"**

_'No, not like that. I meant as in visiting the river. The one with the... floating bodies.'_ Asta replied, internally wincing at how he said that.

**"...you want to see if the elves pass through? To see if they actually passed on?"** The devil inquired.

_'...yeah.'_

**"It doesn't really work that way. The elves, at least the ones who you used your magic on, had passed on without regrets. The antimagic undid the reincarnation magic and also any chances of their returning to the world of the living."** The demon began. **" The river Styx is for those whose souls are either vengeful and hated or simply filled with too much despair and sorrow. Why else do you think it flows through the Underworld?"**

Asta sighed, sullen. Maybe he'll feel better after some sleep. Besides, he had _lots_ of stuff to do!... But the reason for it was still frustrating and depressing.

**"...Even if the elves had passed through the river, what would you do? Complaining isn't like you and they don't really have any interest in how the human world is coping."**

_'Why do the demons need me so bad? I can't be that valuable. I have you already as it is.'_ Asta admitted. The demon didn't answer. _'Devil?'_

**"Sentimental value. Before you came about, Babylon had been missing for almost a millenia. No signs, no mana patterns, no soul in the River Styx. It wasn't just abnormal, it was unthinkable. Babylon used to reincarnate like clockwork if they died but then something happened. Something that stopped them from returning. That's as far as I know."** The demon said.

_'Then what?'_

**"A millenia with no signs passed. Some mourned, some accepted it, some were in denial but the point stood - you skipped at least twenty lifetimes. Many were losing hope. Demons weren't as active as we used to be. The past two decades in particular have been quiet, with the exception of what happened in Spade. Then- I'm not really sure how to say it."** The demon said, oddly somber. Asta noticed something in the way he said it. Like he was remembering something. Or trying _not to_.

_'Not... really sure?'_ Asta asked.

**"...You can't tell this to anyone. I'm a demon but every demon needs a contract to go into the human realm. I'm an exception. Remember when you kept climbing up the roots towards the ceiling?"** Asta nodded. The somber tone he had was enough to point out that this was a touchy matter for the demon as well. **"That's one of the gates of the Underworld. For some reason, I could pass through them but other demons can't. Even if you had gone to the top, the ones in the next level would have caught you. I managed to get out by pure luck. But..."**

_'You don't have to tell me.'_ Asta finally said. _'It... if it hurts, you don't have to tell me now.'_

**"You're not alone in this."** The demon finally said after a pause. His tone was cryptic, almost like he wanted to say it differently. **"There are demons who suffer every day from higher ranked ones. The Underworld is a hell hole for everyone. There's bound to be some poor sod who doesn't go by a day before bleeding."**

_'Thank you.'_ Asta said to his demon, a somber feeling crawling in his chest. He huffed and tried to sleep.

**_But sleep was anything but peaceful._ **

Asta woke up running. He wasn't running, more so he was watching someone run through his eyes. He had no control in his body, stuck to only feel the blistering heat on his skin, the wind in his hair and the raw emotions in his heart.

His body felt cold, empty, tired and lacking something. Something that familiar but so out of reach.

The emotions burned. Fear, hatred, _betrayal, pain, desparation-_

Asta was nothing more than a spectator in his own body, running from something in a burning forest while chocking on his own sobs.

He was screaming for someone, for multiple people, pleading for them to come. Multiple points of pain flared as something was stabbed through the right of his torso. The body looked down as shaky hands clamped down on the spot. Asta saw that not only did he have breasts but there was _a giant spear sticking out of his torso._

Anguish echoed through his chest, a sob and a groan leaving his throat as blood covered hands, glass shards and knives digging into the flesh of his arms, thorns and sticks along with the bruises littering their body.

Yells, screams of anger echoed through the forest and the body ignored the pain and soldiered on, running and screaming for _someone, anyone-_

_"Lucifero!"_ The body screamed. Asta knew whose name that was, knew who they was calling for but with how the previous names were called and ignored, this one was gone with the wind as well.

Tears and blood dripped down their face as they cried, heavy footsteps slowing as their vision got hazy. The angered yells got _louder, closer-_

_"Satanael!"_ The body cried, a last ray of hope as despair overcame. The body collapsed, the spear and other objects lodged in their body digging painfully into the body and the dirt. People, silhouettes with torches and weapons surrounded the body. The body's eyes burned, a new wave of tears and sorrow escaping them.

Red light came from the skies, burning everything in it's way. The smell human flesh burning made it's way to their nose as silhouettes became nothing more than dust in a dozen seconds. The metal and shards of pain were burned away, leaving nothing but cuts and empty holes in their body.

Hope returned. _But so did anguish._

_'Satanael.'_ Asta heard echoing in the space where he was. Pain and betrayal echoed through those words. _'Out of all the demons who said they needed me, it was only **Satanael** who came to save me.'_

A pair of cold arms, larger than their whole body, turned over their body and cradled it.

And Asta saw the demon that saved them. Seven heads, different horns on each and red, glowing, blistering eyes. The skin was black but illuminated in an orange glow from the fire. Only the front head, which had been adorned in feathers, had it's eyes open. The demon looked shocked, scared and frantic, looking over their body in panic and mumbling _"no"_ over and over again.

"Sa- _tana_ - _el.._." The body croaked, arm weakly moving to touch the demon's face.

"Babylon- no, _nonono, this wasn't supposed-_ who did this- that's not important, just hold on, I'll get you to the others, we'll be _fine-_ " the demon fired off and Asta realized at that point that this wasn't a dream. _This was a memory of Babylon. His past life._

" _They left me,_ " the body- no, _Babylon_ sobbed as tears streamed down their face. "They left me, Satanael. The minute the they gained bodies and access to this world-"

Voices of varying pitch and emotion were recalled.

**_"We can't freely exist in your world but seeing it through you is enough."_ **

**_"You are precious to us! We wouldn't leave you!"_ **

**_"Once this ritual is at it's advent, we will be together in true form. We will rule together, as it is meant."_ **

The body cried, heavy sobs and wheezes echoing through the burning forest as blood was coughed up. _Pain, sorrow, betrayal._

"All you _demons-_ " another cough "are _the same-_ " a hiccup and a sob "the minute you get- what you want" a wheeze, their vision clouding "you _throw me away-_ " more sobbing "i- I _hate_ you, I _hate you all so much- I don't-_ "

"Babylon-"

"I kept- calling you and _you-_ only you, who _hated_ me, came to save me-" the body sobbed. " _I don't want this._ I don't want _any_ of this. This pain, _this despair- I want to forget this-"_

"Babylon, _please, hold on,_ this is a misunderstanding, the Qlipoth-"

"I want to forget this! I don't want to remember any of this! I want to die and never know any of you! I want to forget ever meeting you all, bonding and fighting with you, I want to forget the love you made to me-" Babylon's sobs cut them off. " _I don't want to remember being born knowing you!_ "

Babylon cried, tears burning their skin as their vision blurred and their body got colder. A pair of claws wiped away their tears. Satanael looked down on them, pain ever prevalent.

"I don't want to be Babylon. Not anymore. If I have to be born again, knowing that I caused this, _I'd rather be born with no mana and no family_." Finally said Babylon and a pang of pain and fear echoed through Asta.

"Alright." He said. Babylon's sobs got caught in their throat. "This- _all of this,_ is our fault. We must be punished and you don't deserve to remember this. _Then so be it._ We'll wipe the slate clean: your memories, your mana, _your past lives -_ I'll erase them all and you'll be reborn in a time where the name Babylon no longer exists. A time-"

Satanaels voice got caught in his throat. Tears threatened to fall from from his eyes as his shoulders quaked.

"A time when you will be _human,_ when you can live as a human, without any of us to hurt you." He finally bit out. Their body was cold, _so cold_ and losing blood, and their limbs felt numb.

" _Come with me-_ " Babylon croaked. "Burn holes in my soul, burn holes in yours and let us merge one last time as we fade away."

"Just like that song about the River Styx you always sang." Satanael laughed sardonically after a pause and began to rock their body. His previously cold hands had begun burning, blistering heat melting away at the flesh of their body. He began singing.

_"Burn holes in my so~les,_

_Burn holes in my bo~nes,_

_Leave nothing for the thro~ne,_

_Leave nothing of my o~wn."_ The demon sang as his body began melting away, blood and flesh dripping into their own body as familiar red lights and sigils flooded their vision.

_"Down the river my body flo~ats,_

_Nothing for me but my sinners and lo~ves,_

_Down the river of death my corpse go~es,_

_Until oblivion swallows me who~le..."_ Babylon sang along with Satanael, the singing fading and mind going blank, as warmth wrapped itself around them both one last time before erupting in blistering light.

Asta woke up with a start, sitting upwards as his hands clutched the blanket and his breath went ragged.

His body was shaking, mind was racing. What was that? A dream? _A memory? Of Babylon's death?! Why?! Why was he seeing that? And only now at that! Why was he shown-_

_'Why do the demons need me so badly?_ ' That question was something he had an answer to already. Asta himself had the answer, he had simply forgotten.

_'Why do the demons need me so badly?'_

_'They don't. They just need what you can do for them.'_ Asta's mind supplied. Conviction and sadness swelled up in his chest, eyes burning with the promise of tears. The dream felt _so rea_ l and the emotions, the betrayal had stung _so deep._

"Asta?" Said a voice in his head and a voice next to him. Asta ignored the demon and looked over to see Nero, in her human form, sitting next to him with worry in her eyes. "Was it... _them?"_

Asta knew what Nero meant by ' _them_ '. The demons. She thought he had slipped through into the Underworld.

"N-no. Just a bad dream, not one with demons, I'm fine." He finally replied. "Did i wake you up?"

Nero's leveled stare showed that she knew he wasn't okay but didn't say anything on the matter, opting to simply wrap him in a hug.

"You don't have to bottle it all up. If you do, you'll end up like Patri." Secre said, an awkward form of a reassurance. Asta laughed a little.

"Okay." Asta replied. He finally pulled away, rubbing at his eyes. "I'm going to get a glass of water."

"I'll go with you." Nero said as she turned herself back to a bird and perched herself on his head. Asta smiled and got off the bed, making his journey down to get some water.

_'Hey.'_ Asta poked the demon. The demon immediately responded. _'Did you see that?'_

No response.

_'Devil?'_

**"I'm fine... just... digesting that."**

_'Okay. Just- just don't leave. I thought you left.'_

**"Asta."**

_'I'm just really drained. It's a lot to take in.'_ Asta sighed as he walked down the stairs.

**"...It's likely that you might not see anything else on that matter. If what happened in that dream was real, then it's likely that it's all your getting. I'm not some scholar but Satanael was all but a legend. He was old. Ancient even. He's dead but they still talk about him like he's an omen. His magic even more so. He disappeared during some time in the past, I think, and nobody saw tail or horn of him. Guess we now know where he went."** The demon explained.

_'So erasure magic?'_

**"Radiation magic. Outside of that, it's all I know. He was dead by the time I was born. Lucky me."** The demon clarified with a shiver. **"Lover's last minute suicide and a thousand year punishment for the rest of his kind. Sounds just like him."**

_'Think we'll ever meet him? If he reincarnated, that is.'_

**"You best pray we don't. I don't want to be on a literal myth's bad side after a millennia long absence."**

Asta gave an airy laugh as he entered the main hall. Much to his surprise, Captain Yami was also up. He looked like he was deep in thought but then turned to Asta.

"Shrimp? Everything okay?" His captain asked.

"Yeah, just a weird dream. Not a nightmare but weird enough to wake up from. I'm fine." Asta said with a yawn and moved to the cabinets for a glass.

"Okay. But if anything happens, you tell either me, miss royal or Nero, okay?" Yami stated. Asta nodded seriously as he went to the water barrel. Yami made a notion to the couch and Asta sat there. Clearly Yami wanted to talk. "Was the dream bad or...?"

"It's a weird one. I think I was in a forest. Or maybe even just a lavish town." Asta said.

"Nothing too dangerous?" Yami asked, crushing the cigarette into the ashtray.

"Nah." Asta lied.

"That's a relief to hear. You two still tired from those noble pricks?" The captain looked at Asta and Nero. Both shook their heads. "I see. This situation really went down the shitter. Anyway, I've got an idea as to where to start in Clover about demons."

"Really?" Nero perked up.

"Yeah, plus it'll be killing two birds with one stone. Prickly Queen was cursed at some point and was supposed to die when she was 18. I was in the area and managed to get her out, but the fact that she was cursed doesn't simply disappear. Plus, she's been in recovery ever since the elf incident so I've been meaning to visit her." Yami explained.

"She might have some information about the weg." Nero added.

"Oh yeah! The Blue Rose captain helped captain Yami with that weird laughing devil." Asta realized. "Do you want us to come along?"

"Basically. We've got to search all of Clover up and down before going abroad to look for others. We've got about three leads and you're going to check on two of them. If we get nothing, we're heading to either Diamond or Heart Kingdom." Yami finished.

**"Can't go to Spade. The oaf's got a brain in his head at least."** The demon spoke.

"I'm sure we'll find something!" Asta exclaimed. "And if we don't, we can find other clues!"

"If we don't, you're basically going on probation, you know that, right?"

"Yes sir!"

* * *

**"Probation."** The demon scoffed. **"Julius is too soft on the nobles. He should make their lives harder."**

In the end, all their leads went to Heart Kingdom, which, much to Julius and Yami's suspicious relief, Mimosa had connections to. Judging by how shaken up Luck was from their scouting mission to Diamond Kingdom, things weren't looking so good.

_'Julius doesn't have as much influence as he did. This is probably pushing it as it is. Besides, have you ever been to Heart Kingdom?'_ Asta rebuked as he, Noelle, Mimosa and Finral were sailing to Heart Kingdom. Captain Yami had given him an intimidating _"don't you dare break this, don't talk with people you don't know, be wary of your surroundings"_ talk. He'd given Noelle and Mimosa a stern glare and those two only nodded.

**"Julius keeps saying that he wants to make it easier for commoners to be respected, and yet he panders to the upper echelon for a massacre they caused by throwing a commoner as a scapegoat, and not even an accurate one."** The demon continued, a bitter form of hate in his voice. **"Julius is a liar as much as he is a romantic."**

_'That's not true! Julius tries, he really does, but he can't do it if the people who are meant to provide resources stop doing it just because they're unhappy.'_ Asta tried to reason. _'And besides, you say that like your plan is any better.'_

_**"What?"** _

_'You say you want to kill Lucifero, say you do, then what?'_ Asta asked. _'What will you achieve if you kill him?'_

**"Vindication. Vengeance. Lucifero is the supreme high demon in the Underworld. He's at the top of the pecking order. The minute he's gone, that shithole is gonna change for the better, but that doesn't matter to me."** The demon said, seemingly as if the idea of making the Underworld better didn't even come to him.

_'I'm not asking about the Underworld. I'm asking about you.'_ Asta thought, poking at the demon's metaphysical form. He didn't get an answer and realised he may have soured the mood a bit. _'At least we get to see what kind of place Heart Kingdom is.'_

**"It's a land rich with mana, what's more to it?"**

_'A lot! You're just salty about the trial.'_

**"I'm not salty, I'm bored. How much more can this trip go on for?!"** The demon exclaimed. As it turns out, not a lot. The fog had receded and revealed a lush, beautiful land.

Mimosa had introduced them to Gadja, who had welcomed them into Heart Kingdom. Things were going smoothly as they were sailing their way to meet the Queen.

_Then Asta got kidnapped by the Queen of the Heart Kingdom._

**"Five kisses says she knows you're Babylon."** The antimagic demon snickered as Asta was confronted with a battalion of knights made of water. Asta gave a mental poke at the demon as he began slashing through the water knights. But as soon as Asta dealt with ten of them, the rest disappeared. **"Something feels off..."**

A melodious laughter resounded in the amphitheatre. Asta reflexively flinched but realized that the laughter was nothing like the demons' laugh. Judging by the ki, it seemed almost... _intrigued._

Water started gathering on the floor and Asta was almost submerged completely in a second.

"Negating magic, so that's your devil's power. " Said the same voice.

"What's going on?!" Asta yelled out. This mana felt similar to Bell's in a way but different. Suddenly a giant woman made of water emerged from below. Her ears and mana showed she definitely wasn't human but then that would mean-

"It's an affront to all mana but it looks surprisingly useful." Said the woman. "It's a pleasure to meet you, devil possessed boy of the Clover Kingdom. I am Undine - one of the four great spirits and contracted to the queen of the Heart Kingdom."

"Ah, that explains it." Asta said without thinking. Undine only cocked her head to the side and paid it no mind. Instead, she started making a whirlpool underneath him. Asta started spinning with the currents, keeping a grip on his sword to not lose it. Magic was pulling on the sword.

"You're quite strong but you're no match for me. Not to mention, you yourself have no magic whatsoever. How strange." Undine continued as Asta pulled back the antimagic from the sword. Asta was suddenly taken underneath the water, only to re-emerge again with a mouth full of water.

" _Wa-ah!"_ In a moment of shock, Asta had involuntarily gurgled off a high note and focused whatever he could into his sword.

Suddenly familiar lights and patterns erupted on the sword. The crosses glowed an eerie red and thin lines burned through them. A sudden light turned the water around Asta red and in a second it had all but evaporated, leaving Asta to be smashed by two sudden waves made by the lacunae in the water.

Suddenly the water turned grey. A _familiar, murky grey_ colour from which wispy silhouettes burst out into the air.

They were tall, taller than Asta but shorter than Undine with black smoke and particles coming out of the eyes. Some had the lower bodies of fish, others simply had a human head and body of a bird. _Then they started singing_.

There were _no words on this green earth_ that Asta could use to describe _how spectacularly **painful** to the ears the singing was._ It was like a high pitched violin screech, changing tone and pitch every moment.

Both Asta and Undine screamed out in shock at the grey water sirens and grab their ears, causing Asta to lose his grip on his sword, losing its red markings, and for Undine to lower the water level rapidly.

Asta nearly fell face first onto the floor, grabbing his previously fallen sword.

"What the hell was _that_?!" Asta exclaimed, looking around. The grey water was slowly turning back to blue. That never happened before! He mentally poked the antimagic devil, who was only laughing at his shocked expense.

_'We're in the middle of a fight with the Water Spirit! What's so funny?!'_ Asta yelled internally.

**"This is so ridiculous!"** The demon exclaimed in between wheezes. **"I thought the rumor of you falling into the River Styx was fake but hell's bells! You're not dead but you sure as hell aren't unkillable so I guess the sirens decided to have taken a liking to you!"**

_'What does that even mean?!'_ Asta replied, fed up with all the demon's nonsense about the Underworld.

"You..." Asta heard from behind him. He looked at Undine, who was holding her hands close to herself and staring at him as if he was a dead but hated relative that has come back from the grave. Oh he knew exactlywhere this was going. "The Sirens of Hell's River... _don't tell me you're-"_

"I'm not! I don't wanna be it in the first place! I didn't even know I could _do that_!" Asta yelled in his defense, waving his sword at the puddles of water.

The water spirit seemed to snap back into focus, as she started making the water level rise again.

And this time Asta didn't have another opening, as chains made of water pulled him down.

_Was she trying to drown him?!_

Several minutes of struggling went by when a familiar ki flew into the amphitheatre. Nero, who transformed back from bird to human, undid the chains and gave Asta a quick nod.

_Show them why you can't take us up at first glance,_ she meant.

_Will do,_ Asta answered as he headed for a distant beacon of ki.

He expected a lot. A towering woman on a throne ready to fight him. A queen, old and weary, aware of her days being numbered.

He did not expect a doll. Or a woman who looked around the same age and appearance as Sister Lily, napping on a large rug.

The whole situation had de-escalated from there.

Lolopechka was... _a bit of an odd ball._ He wondered if she was okay, after hitting her head on Asta's chin. Before he could ask, Undine had thrown him into a pillar of water and placed him several meters away. The water spirit then began to comfort the Princess, just as Nero had come into the air chamber.

"You keep away from her." Undine said, still on guard.

" _Sorry_?"

"I don't want your apologies, _Babylon_." Undine nearly hissed out the last word. Nero stiffened and Asta visibly soured at it.

"I'm not Babylon. I don't even know who Babylon was until a few months ago. If you're thinking I'm them, I'm sorry to disappoint." Asta said, clearly dejected. He was already sick of the name. The demon huffed in the back of his mind.

"Asta's status as Babylon is practically null and void. His only contract is with the one in his grimoire. And I suggest you keep that name to yourself, with how much the demons would rather hurt him." Nero quickly defended Asta. Undine's posture relaxed but Asta could tell from her ki she was still defensive. Since Undine knew, then so far there wasn't any repercussions from this, right?

"...They've been absent for a millenia. An entire millenia. Some of us had hoped you died for good. Why _now_? Why so suddenly?" Undine asked. Asta assumed that Undine had known the previous Babylon at some point.

"Do I look like I know? I don't have a single clue what they even did a millenia ago. I don't have their memories, not their mana and, well, nothing. I don't have anything from them." Asta admitted.

Undine had flinched, eyes wide and shocked.

"Nothing?"

" _Nada_. Like I said, I didn't even know Babylon was a thing until months ago." Asta confirmed and he could feel Undine's relief rise as she sighed.

"What a relief. What a genuine relief."

The water around them had lowered into small waves and ripples as Lolopechka explained the ranking system of magic in their country. Stage zero was the strongest, stage nine was the lowest. And how a devil was someone above stage one, depending on different factors.

It's then when Asta asked Lolopechka about the curse in Heart Kingdom.

"Oh! That's me! I got cursed by a devil." Lolopechka said as she raised her shirt to reveal a large, swirling mass of ink on her stomach. "If things stay like this, I've only got about a year left to live."

"Huh?!" Asta exclaimed in shock.

" _Huh_?!" Undine yelled in angry disbelief.

" _Huh_?!" Lolopechka said in confusion.

"Why did you tell them that?!"

"Well you guys were talking about Babylon and they were super open about it, so why not?" Lolopechka answered. Asta nearly fell over from the entire conversation.

**"These two are a riot!"** The demon in the back of his head laughed. **"You owe me kisses, too."**

_'Yeah, yeah, I know.'_

And that was how the Clover and Heart Kingdom alliance began, much to Asta's hope and despair.

* * *

Six months pass as quick and as slow as Asta could imagine.

You'd think Asta could go to Heart Kingdom and train but _no._ Asta has been bouncing from Heart to Clover Kingdom on the regular, either for training, visiting the church, missions, getting kidnapped, have a cult try to _sacrifice him to Megicula,_ getting rescued, getting kidnapped _again_ , having Mereoleona drag him off to training and then more training in the Heart Kingdom.

Six months could not possibly pass that fast yet that tediously.

But they did. And Asta grew stronger. Or at least he thought of it that way. He'd inadvertently ripped his jacket and had it mended into an armguard, although he doesn't quite understand why some people wonder why he's wearing it like _that_.

He had said the climate in Heart Kingdom was more humid than in Clover and he'd sweat through both shirts at such a rate. Asta's answer of him only having two shirts, armguard included, didn't help his case but whatever.

He'd also managed to _fly._ Which was cool.

Okay, that's an understatement, Asta had _nearly cried real tears_ when he first managed to use the demon slayer to fly into the air like Yami did with his broom.

It was invigorating and it reminded him of the time Father Orsi took him flying when he was a child. The feeling of the air blowing against his chest and face, _the view, the freedom._

He could tell why some people opted for brooms as a primary form of transport. This was incredible. _Addicting even._

But six months passed and they were readying their strike.

Spade Kingdom had doubled, _if not tripled,_ it's efforts to occupy the Diamond Kingdom. Asta was worried about Mars, especially since nearly the entire Kingdom was occupied and Spade was now breaching Neutral territory borders and coming _uncomfortably close_ to places like the Witch Forest.

Which is why he had gotten ahead of the group and intercepted the oncoming fortress himself.

It wasn't just worry, it was a bubbling form of hate, too. He'd _seen it_. He saw how Spade treated it's citizens, how it had ruled with fear.

So obviously, with nothing but loathing in mind, Asta messes up his control in the Strong Mana Region and ends up crashing the Demon Slayer through the wall of the fortress.

**"Move out the way, hot ass coming through!"** The antimagic demon bellowed with a laugh in Asta's head as the mage fell through the hole with a yell and into the crowd of cowering citizens. **"That's what you get for running head first with nothing but steam."**

"That's a strong magic region alright. The weather's nuts." Asta said as he got back up with a groan, shaking the dust out of his hair.

**"Your control is what's nuts here. Are you trying to give yourself an early grave, you huffy little speed demon?"**

"My control's still not perfect, huh?" Asta inquired as he reached for the sword, only to find out it had flown much further than Asta. He sighed "Crap."

He called back the sword and let the dust and smoke get out of his line of sight.

He spotted the people lying on the ground with dwindling, if not dying, ki and several people try to usher away a woman with ripped clothes and a child no younger than Marie in her hands.

Asta didn't bother to even listen to the spade soldiers as he smashed his sword through one, the momentum throwing the soldier straight through the glass dome and into the strong mana region.

The demon whistled in amusement as he felt more antimagic linger into his swords as he smashed through the soldiers one by one.

The cracks and indents left by the now unconscious soldiers doesn't ease his pain.

He introduced himself and stated his means. _He won't hurt anyone._

It's then that the woman holding the child spills the beans. The fear in her heart and the anger at the person in charge can only simmer in his heart.

He takes it in, takes a breath and assures the people.

Then the reinforcements through the ceiling and Asta starts plowing through them like paper, task at hand and destroying the fortress in his wake.

He ends up overkilling it all, leaving the fortress with _no ceiling_ or even half of its entire structure and tossing the poison magic user around with _little to no respect._

Noelle drops a naga's nest on him and a scolding as well, but Asta brushes it off, warmth settling inside him as he watched the villagers be relieved at the newfound freedom.

**"No going back now."** The demon whispered into his ear.

_'I don't have any intentions to look back in the first place.'_ Asta answered.

* * *

History has a strange way of coming back around. Be it a battle, an enemy, a strategy or a chain of events, there's something that happens which makes a wave of nostalgia burrough in one's chest.

Lucifero had thought it was quite the case this year. They had been planning for the Advent of the Qlipoth for _years_ now, nitpicking through the humans to find the perfect hosts, searching for the designated arcane mages and gathering mana, all to complete the ritual that had taken place a millenia ago.

So nine months ago, when Babylon appeared _for the first time in a thousand years_ in the Underworld, Lucifero was reminded of the olden glory days, when Babylon would raise simple circles of forbidden magic to let them pass into the human realm, _even if temporarily._

When Babylon appeared nearly three seasons ago, scared and scarred, Lucifero knew. That _this time_ , they would not fail them. Because _this time,_ they would not be traversing into the human realm for the simple sake of being there. _This time,_ they come with the promise of _vengeance_ and _conquest_ , with a goal to deal out higher punishment and take back what was rightfully theirs.

They would take the Human realm for themselves in one day and heal the dear person who made it all possible in the first place in the next.

The ritual itself was polished and refined by Babylon, after all. Before the humans took the reincarnating host into their clutches and wrung them dry for whatever power they had, leaving nothing but a lonely, _confused soul._

_Humans._ They were entertaining but entertainment could only be useful for so long. And even then, personal offences made it unpalatable.

They've lost sight of their place in the world. Lucifero will remind them of it and punish them for the grave crime they've committed.

It would all come together, and this time, Babylon would not slip from their grasp, _no matter who would stand in their way._

Lucifero, while keeping specific details to himself, had implored that, once all the requirements were met, they move post haste. Dante had agreed on it, for his own malicious reasons, and set out to find the arcane stage mage earlier than Zenon.

So Lucifero is doubly surprised when not only did the gravity magic was manipulated to avoid the targeted house, but it's _Babylon himself_ that engage them in battle.

Babylon, wearing _the most ridiculous_ and _revealing_ top he's _ever_ seen, riding a sword and wielding another, most likely imbued with whatever power the manaless demon had created. The same demon who had apparently managed to pass into the human world without contract or summoning.

_Really, it's like they've all come full circle._ In as little as an hour, Lucifero will have the last component for the Qlipoth Advent, a body in the human world which doesn't rely on Dante and Babylon.

_What a lovely day_. And what a lovely outfit Babylon had chosen. It's a shame that it's in Megicula's colors and not his though.

And he has grown considerably. His shoulders have broadened along with the thickness of his arms. They're strong, muscles outlined by the tight fabric of the clothing.

His neck is thicker, _stronger, meatier_ and added with Babylon's _much more developed_ chest, Lucifero's mind can't help but wander to how satisfying it would feel to dig his teeth into that collar from and how _supple_ the chest would feel in his claws. It's difficult to see but Lucifero wondered how would their back look, muscles shifting and _spine twisting as he'd dig his claws into his thighs to-_

_Sweet Allfather, he's been deprived of Babylon's embrace for far too long._ An exposed neck, collarbone and chest should _not_ have this much affect on him.

Perhaps the moving fortress that was disabled a while ago was his doing. _His way of getting attention, maybe? Or a sign that they're letting him move more freely?_

Regardless, no one had apparently died and while the fortress had been destabilised, the mana was released back into nature.

Interesting. _Very_ interesting indeed.

Lucifero had expected the fight to be short. Babylon, while a holder of vast potential, was currently contracted to only one demon, and the lowest ranking one at that. Dante had the ability to use 80% of his power.

Even if the red cat on Babylon's shoulder could alter fate, it would do little to help him _actually win._

Lucifero expects the fight to be over in a minute, even if he specifically told Dante not to harm them too much. Dante instead sends the demon host falling down into the ground and Lucifero expects immediate surrender from the humans that are apparently in charge of the house.

What he gets instead is a nauseous feeling of _dread_ down his back as Babylon flies back up to their level, black blade growing more and more in length.

A pitch black magic, stained with red blood and hatred beyond compare.

A magic capable of completely negating his gravity magic, an art that reigns _supreme_ in the Underworld _even to this day._

Most stopgap magics were paltry and were easily crushed under his gravity. The force simply managed to _crush_ the spell under his mana and power.

_Yet this one refused to budge._ If anything, it felt like it was erasing _the very form of mana itself._

That was... _troubling_. But essentially meaningless. There's no point in swinging a sword that's not polished. It might as well be a hulking block of iron. Especially one in the hands of someone so fueled with rage.

Malice, unless controlled, does nothing for a devil but drive it wild.

And Babylon is just barely keeping up the mental barriers to keep the hate from overflowing. They're nervous yet collected and Lucifero can smell the denial from here.

_Ah,_ were they scared? Of getting killed by him? _Silly, truly silly._ If Dante were to leave a life threatening wound on Babylon, Lucifero would personally leave the contract null and void while crushing the king into minced meat.

Dante was but _a sack of malicious meat_ he had to keep happy to not suspect anything. A form of cattle that you took care of, if one could call him that. A _toy_ even.

Toys were made to be destroyed and replaced after all. And Dante would soon come to realise he's outlived his expiration date at the very last minute.

Dante set down next to Babylon and began talking.

"So, you're Babylon. Shame, I was expecting a beautiful woman."

"I live to spite the expectations placed on me, especially by a bastard like you." Babylon spits every word with venom. Its a beautiful look on them.

Lucifero ignored the conversation, simply watching the demon host struggle against the gravity magic hold. His eyes shone with wrath with every word that Dante said.

"I've got a strong heart that can control them and do what's right! That's what it means to be human!"

**_"But you're not human, Babylon. So why bother?"_** Lucifero whispered into the ashen haired host's ear. He could see the sudden panic and fear growing on the host's face. The lines on his face growing and distorting too.

Then Dante made a sword that stabbed through one of the humans' chest.

Then Lucifero felt the same, nauseous sensation from before but there was no end to it. It just grew and grew and _ate at the magic on Babylon until-_

Until _something_ happened.

_And everything went to hell from there._

The wave of antimagic and sudden, blistering heat on Dante's back had burned through the entire field, negating his gravity magic.

What Lucifero saw, even if through Dante's eyes, was _mildly horrifying._

Babylon was a host that was beautiful and deadly in full power.

The rampaging lesser demon, combined with Babylon's power and leverage, had turned the once beautiful form into something out of a nightmare.

The energy had turned everything from Babylon's right arm, to their face to the entirety of their back into a black inky mess of fractals. The black matter leaking from the arm was stopped by ancient sygils and symbols, forming an armor of sorts around the arm in a form of long exposure. Both eyes had gone red and what skin wasn't covered in darkness was marked in moving red lines. Teeth had elongated and the black wing on his right was matched by a painfully bright red one that kept popping its joints in and out.

The lesser demon is nothing but that: _a lesser demon._ Even if it had somehow evolved into some form of higher devil, its a futile effort to struggle against Lucifero. He ruled supreme in the Underworld, and soon enough he'll rule supreme in the human realm.

_But those eyes..._ they reminded him of _Satanael_ far too much. It was _menacing_ , how they stared right through his heart with such intensity and the feral grimace on his face did not help.

The sword, covered by the red glowing forms of what Lucifero could tell to be the skeletons of primordial creatures, was swung at them and distorted like a whip.

Dante dodged it but the whip generated a creature- long in form and triangular snout- that snapped dangerously close to his host. The close burn of radiation did not help their case.

"Who is that devil, Lucifero?" Dante asked, both curious and wary.

Lucifero paused momentarily. This wasn't Satanael, as Babylon had stated he was dead, but outright stating his connection to the meager imp was strategically stupid.

So he'll pretend he doesn't know... for now.

**"I don't know. If there is a high-ranking devil in this world, it would be Zagred, but this doesn't seem to be him. With a stop-gap power like erasing spells... it's probably a low-ranking nobody with a paltry magic. But..."** Lucifero said. **"The dead creatures and radiation... a mix of Babylon's previous magic and Satanael's, yet rampaging as if not their own. Be wary."**

And the fight went on but Lucifero could only wait for both the demon and Babylon to be knocked out to gain a proper answer.

* * *

It's a long time before Asta finally has a grasp on his consciousness.

Asta was floating through the red space again when he heard a voice.

**_"It's a lovely day today."_** Said a voice and immediately Asta is assaulted with a horrid feeling of deja-vu. He turned around, realising just how bad this situation is. He had hoped that the pressure he felt and the horns on Dante's head were just a coincidence, that _maybe_ there was another. _**"It's not too sunny, not too cloudy. There's so little left to prepare for the advent, the kingdoms' defences are falling one by one..."**_

Asta was wrong. _Very wrong_ , as he realised he was facing _Lucifero in a mindscape._

**_"And I have you in my reach, Babylon."_** Lucifero finally said, his form cloaked in a dark silhouette, large claws already close enough to Asta that he could scratch him. Asta backed away, genuinely wondering how he's getting out of this one. _**"It's been a very long few months. Dante was too rough on you, but I suppose we had no choice."**_

Asta said nothing. He can't say anything, mind too focused on finding an escape or a way to fight back. Lucifero grasped him, too fast for Asta to dodge but slow enough that the human could slip away far enough to have some leverage of his upper body. His hands were trapped but maybe if he _wiggled them-_

**_"You've changed quite a bit."_** The demon said, bringing Asta closer to his face, as if to get a better look at him as the human struggled to get out. The large thumb comes to gently pet his head. **_"Your hair is longer."_**

Asta flinched from the contact, only for the thumb to press against his neck. Asta's lungs seized up. Lucifero was a _giant,_ if he wanted to, he could easily decapitate him by _just pushing his head off of his shoulders._

**_"You've gotten more meat on your bones. Good, we were afraid you were being starved with how little muscle you had."_** Lucifero mentioned absentmindedly as he stroked the length between his jaw and the end of his collarbone. **_"And you've become rather well-endowed."_**

That made Asta squeak in fear. The thumb went to his chest, the side of the nails raking against his arm guard as the meat of the finger felt the curve of his torso. Lucifero hummed, his eyes closing just a bit as he watched Asta try to get away from the touch. The hand squeezed around him momentarily, not strong enough to hurt but enough for Asta to flinch momentarily.

Asta used to never understand what business some people had with breasts. They were just that, breasts. Then one day he had accidentally ripped his shirt and Noelle had gone into a full blown meltdown. He had assumed it was the muscle performance.

He's slowly realising that the chest, despite how normal it seemed to him, was actually the holder of many important, _easily bruisable organs._

_**"No need to be shy. We've all been waiting for the day when you finally return."**_ Lucifero said.

_**"Your sense in style hasn't changed either. A fortress had stopped functioning a few hours ago. And now you're here dressed like this. Were you trying to get our attention?"**_ The demon continued as he let out a chuckle that made shivers go down Asta's spine. ** _"Did you know we were coming and decided to doll up? How sweet of you. Black and brass really do bring out the best of you."_**

"There's nothing fashionable about _war attire_!" Asta finally grit out. "It's better than running around in a dress."

**_"Yet fighting in the cold, harsh blizzards of Spade with nothing but a very revealing robe and garment is? Aren't you cold?"_** The demon's eyes glinted with mirth. Something sinister then went over his eyes. **_" Or maybe this is all the armor they're giving you? Really, not even a patch of fur to keep you sheltered from the cold? They must want you to freeze to death. No matter, I'll have you warm sooner than later."_**

" _Like hell you will_!" Asta snapped, pushing his arms against the demon's hands. He wasn't sure why he even paused to listen, these bastards wouldn't change for the life of him. "And this is an arm guard, you dog! Let me go, asshole!"

_**"Still feisty and brainwashed as well. Not for long I suppose. It's a lovely day after all."**_ The word " _lovely_ " rolled off Lucifero's tongue with a worrying amount of glee. **_"What a coincidence that you would be in charge of guarding the dark magic arcane mage. What a coincidence that_ that _demon was guarding you all this time. It's almost fate."_**

_'Captain Yami?!'_ Asta's mind stared going haywire. He knew that he and Anti had some nasty history as far as he knew but Yami? Why would he need Yami?! So far, only Nero, Noelle, Mimosa, _Julius and Yami knew of-_

Asta went pale. No- _they wouldn't, they couldn't have known_ that they were the only ones who knew. But Nero, Noelle and Mimosa were guarding Lolopechka, who was anticipating an attack from Megicula's host. And Julius was in a captain's meeting with Yami. They shouldn't have _even known so why-_

_Why were they waiting for him to be separated from all of them and attack then?!_

"You _bastads-!_ Leave Captain Yami and the others alone! They have nothing to do with this!" Asta yelled, motivation back in full swing as he pushed apart the clenched hand. He had to get out of here, finish off Lucifero and check on the others, it was terrible enough that Gauche suffered a lethal injury. _If anyone else, if anyone else-_

An image of their bodies, oozing blood and losing colour, shot adrenaline into his system as he was finally free.

**_"Oh, but they have_ everything _to do with this."_ **Lucifero said as he brought his other hand from his side, smashing Asta between them and forcing the human to push against both walls to avoid being crushed. **_"Their magic, their life force and their connections to you. You know why, don't you. Your memories are gone, but you cannot change the soul. You must have sought them out unconsciously. The advent of the Tree of Qlipoth is nigh, after all. And by the end of today, we will have the arcane stage mages gathered, I will have a physical path into this realm with the help of that devil and you will be in our reach, free of whatever manipulations they strung you up on."_**

_The advent of the Tree of Qlipoth. **Qlipoth.**_

Asta remembered that word from the dream. _The dream where Babylon died_. He broke off into a cold sweat.

"No. No, _no, nonono-_ you don't _understand-_ do you even know what happened _the last time_ you pulled that Qlipoth crap?!" Asta yelled, eyes wide with panic and a sudden form of hurt burning through his scars. Lucifero's raised eyebrows gave him all he needed to know. "You don't _know_? _You don't even_ ** _fucking know?_** "

**_"Know what? What do you remember? Who killed you last time?"_** Lucifero forcefully asked, bringing the hand closer to Asta his face. Asta took a deep breath, swallowed the burn in his throat and glared at Lucifero with as much hate as he could show.

"You did. You, Megicula, Zagred and _everyone_ else. You killed Babylon." Asta said, his voice booming through the space of the red dimension. "And _Satanael_ died with them."

There was a moment of silence as Asta could _literally_ hear the gears in Lucifero's head turn, trying to make sense of the statement.

He took the double horned demon's sudden shrinking and grab for him as a sign that he got the message.

He grabbed Asta, one hand on his neck and the other on his right triceps.

**_"We'll fix this. We'll fix this."_** Lucifero grit out, gravity magic paralysing Asta. ** _"We'll fix all of this. We'll start with a proper contract. Luckily that foolish lesser demon didn't make a pr-"_**

Lucifero never got to finish.

A shinning red light surrounded Asta and spread. The sound of burning flesh reached his ears as Lucifero snarled, ripping his hands away from Asta. It wasn't enough to burn Lucifero's claws off, but Asta could see the obvious marks that would be left behind.

Asta, after the event in the amphitheatre, had desperately tried to learn how to bring out either the sirens or the light again. The sirens were a coin flip - they either appeared or they didn't, they seemed fickle and mischievous about appearing. But the light came without fail.

Satanael, despite being a dead and brutal demon, revered as a legend in the Underworld, was thorough with his promises, both to himself and Babylon.

The last resort of his power, what little was left of him, had settled in the small holes of Asta's soul, coming about like a last defence mechanism.

The last time Asta had that dream, he decided he'd mourn. Not as someone who knew Satanael, not as Babylon but as Asta. As a human who saw what his ancestors did and how the demon had sacrificed his own flesh and soul to bring back the one they killed. A single candle had been lit and placed in a weaved basket of flowers and pushed into a pond.

He can't bring back the dead but, in the very least, Asta could mourn them in the stead of those who didn't know.

Asta still felt sad thinking about it. But sadness will get him nowhere in this situation.

_**"Satanael! You bastard, what is the meaning of this?! Show yourself!"**_ Lucifero yelled into the thin air, fully expecting him to appear. When he didn't, he turned to Asta. _ **"Where-"**_

Before he could finish, wild antimagic shot from the depths of the darkness, stabbing into Lucifero. Yells of rage, fury and promises of death distorted the space, causing the very air to burn.

Lucifero roared and retreated into wherever he was originally.

And Asta could only fall into the raging black waters as hate, malice and curses, flooding his mind with the voice of his demon.

* * *

Waking up with his body so distorted with soreness is a new and jarring feeling.

Asta doesn't realise he's in a crater until he breathes in a mouthful of dirt. He can't move, every move causes his muscles to scream in pain.

But he can't _not move_. He needed to make sure everyone was okay. _He-_

_He wasn't even sure what happened. He couldn't even remember what he was doing._

Sensing Gauche's ki, Asta relaxed. Gauche was alive. _Gauche was well and alive and by some miracle he's okay._ Asta couldn't be _more relieved-_

He flexed his left hand right arm to to feel like someone was carving intricate patterns into it. In fact, it was hard to even move the muscles _on his face._

Looking over his right arm, he saw that there were lines, strange squiggles of ancient symbols and writings burned into the flesh that Asta couldn't recognise but for some reason could guess the meaning.

_Propagation, dead ones, light which burns_ and something that Asta could only guess meant _"that which opposes all mana"._

He could only guess what happened and pushed the thoughts aside.

_Because that Spade guy-_

Asta raised his head just in time to see Captain Yami all but slice through Dante, with a splash of blood going everywhere.

Captain Yami, _crap, wait, they need to get him out of here-!_ But unless the Spade guy had healing on him, _there's-_

Asta watched in horror as Dante ripped open his shirt to reveal a spell that was pushing the wound back together, closing in in a married of contracting muscles and flesh.

Asta was lucky he didn't eat anything beforehand because he's _sure_ he would've vomited.

Even Yami visibly shivered at the sight of that.

And then Dante began talking about why he was attacking.

_Qlipoth_. The tree of Qlipoth is a portal that connects the Underworld, the realm of demons, and the human realm. A ritual that sacrificed a dark magic user and a world tree magic user.

_One that Babylon had performed right up until they died._

Asta had _never been so afraid in his life._ Not only because this was going to destroy the world as they know it, but also one thing that Asta would be _responsible for._

Babylon had been the first recorded demon host. Which means that Babylon had discovered as much as they could about devils. It's not a longshot to assume they had created the ritual in the first place.

And _by extension,_ Asta would be held responsible for the damage that it would cause. _And there would be no going back from that._

Asta would be labeled a villain that waited for a millenia to take revenge against all of humanity, driven out of the continent at best and publicly burned on a stake at worst. _No, maybe even that wouldn't be the worst._

Everything Asta did, everything he worked for would be gone in mere days and it would all be _because of whom?_ Who is responsible for such an apocalyptic event _if not the reincarnation of the person who did it?_

Which is why Asta _had_ to stop this. He had to kill Dante, he had to protect Captain Yami and he had to make sure Captain William was _also not captured because-_

Because the pressuring fear of the world ending and surviving to see it outweighed the fear of _death_. Because the sight of your family dying and using their last breath to curse you for being alive is enough to simply _not want to live at all._

Asta would rather willingly drive a sword into the scar on his stomach and bleed out than see everything he loved be burned to ground _by the people who used him in a past life._

But Asta couldn't move and everyone else was _not_ in fighting condition, _mentally or physically_. The only one left to fight Dante was Captain Yami.

It kept going on and on between the two. Slashes and throws of gravity, flesh morphing back into its place while Ki predicted the next set of movement.

Asta hadn't felt this helpless since he first arrived in the Underworld, _confused, tired and powerless._

Then Dante decided to use as much demon power Lucifero would be able to grant him and Asta realised he needed to act _now or they're all going to die._

He had to do _something_. He had to do _anything at all,_ just so the tides could turn in their favor _for once._ He didn't spend six months training to face his demons for _nothing_. _He had to do something, anything._ The antimagic demon was still knee deep in rage and Asta could slowly begin to feel his body bring itself back to shape.

But it would all be useless _unless he did something now._

Watching Captain Yami barely dodge black hole after black hole, debris and giant boulders hurled into his position made Asta want to burn the entirety of the forest down.

The writings on his arm burned again, small red sparks bouncing off the wounds and go out in the air.

A sudden rock fell down on Yami, nearly crushing him and the sparks turned into something similar of sparklers.

A sudden change in position, a shift in ki and there was a hole the size of a small table going through Dante. In fact, not even through him so much as it separated his arms, head and lower body from each other.

Asta laughed in disbelief. Of course, _of fucking course._ Only Captain Yami could make up a _new lethal move mid-fight_ and damn near incapacitate the enemy.

**_"Not yet. Not yet at all."_** Asta heard Lucifero's hoarse voice and a chill ran down his back, raising goosebumps.

And then Dante's body started regrowing, morphing, mutating into a form that barely resembled humanity.

_'Is this guy even human anymore?'_ Asta thought.

The battle continued but Asta knew. Asta _knew_ that now, things are going to be _impossibly_ difficult. He cursed his body for the burning pain that refused to budge and the soreness of his muscles that stopped him from moving.

Asta's hands dug into the shattered stone of the crater, desperately trying to climb out yet moving only by inches.

_'Get up, get up, damn it, damn it all, just move, body! Move, damn it all!'_ Asta yelled in his mind, hands aching from the way the jagged rocks dug into his palms.

Why, _why, why-_

_Why was he still in the same state of helplessness as before? Why was he so weak?! Why-_

Just _why_ did the situation end up exactly like this, _exactly like back then_ , when he was crushed into the ice by the very same devil?

"Damn it all to hell-" Asta grumbled into the dust beneath him.

"Hey! Asta!" Captain Yami called him. "I can't win this one without you. Are you gonna let this chance to knock this guy on his head go to waste?"

For a second, Asta felt a surge of hope, pride and something else. Something he felt when Captain Fuegoleon had acknowledged him, back in the capital after his first judgement.

It was vindication. And it made Asta soar.

Quite literally, as the demon dweller shot out of the ground into his marked arms and flew to Yami's side.

"Wouldn't dream of it, sir."

And everything went off in debris. Asta knew for a fact that he'd only slow Yami down, his own power simply being not enough.

So _he'd have to hope he's awake-_

_'Antima!'_ Asta yelled mentally and found his vision shifting to red and black. Thank god, the host thought, at least he's listening. "Are you okay?!"

_**"Worry about yourself and the battle you little-"**_ the antimagic demon yelled in irritation, clearly still simmering in rage.

"Listen! We're both angry and we'll both kick his ass but we need more power to do that! I have zero idea on what to do here-" Asta chocked back, rage and distress clogging up his throat. "So please! Lend me your power!"

_**"... We don't have a lot of options here. Right now, your body is still reeling from the full brunt of Satanael's promise. As things stand now, I can't share all of my power with you. I need something in exchange."**_ The demon said gravely. Asta got the message and stuck his right arm out. _**"Are you really sure about this? Or are you simply desperate?"**_

"I don't care what I am at this point. Right now, all I want to do is be the type of reliable person that Captain Yami is asking of me. If I can't even be that, how can I be anyone at all?" Asta said, still holding his arm out. The devil took his arm and Asta felt something crunch, burn, push and suddenly harden.

Next thing Asta knew, he was back in the battle field, rigorous energy bursting through his veins and a black, murky form of power echoing through his bones.

He felt lighter, his arm felt heavier and yet, he felt like he could almost feel the way time started to move slower, how details became sharper and how something seemingly grew from his arm. _Something familiar, something forgotten._

**_Returned to what it once was._ **

**_"50 seconds. That arm isn't like it was before, it's become the power itself. A contract of take and give. You'll be in the peak of contract for 50 seconds. After that, your body won't hold out anymore and will be forced to adjust to it."_** The demon said gravely.

_'50 seconds is enough!'_ Asta answered back, slashing at Dante's arm and hearing him howl in pain. The arm radiated antimagic in the same way it came from the swords at full power. If he could land a clean hit on Dante-

_Then a clean strike is all he will aim for._

Sword after sword, strike after strike Yami and Asta chipped away at Dante, who became more and more of a mess of flesh than a human.

In the very last second, Yami threw his sword to Asta and its as if his body moved on it's own.

**"Do it!"** Antimagic demon yelled.

_**"Don't you dare-!"**_ Lucifero screeched.

A clean, sharp strike sliced through Dante, almost as if slicing his very soul and forcing Lucifero back into the trenches of his mind.

The moment Dante's now human body fell to the ground, a long, black tinted cut covering his chest, Asta knew they'd _won._

Asta barely took one step as a blunt, static like pain enveloped his body and fire rooted out of the bones of his arm into the rest of his skeleton. His feet couldn't hold him, losing their footing and barely hitting the ground as Yami caught him.

Asta only smiled when Yami called his a nutcase.

Asta was _ready to die_ to stop the Qlipoth ritual from happening. A deal with a devil is nothing if not generous.

* * *

Yami loves his squad. His squad is his home, his weird little gremlin family of weirdos and generally ostracised people, kind of like him.

So when a demon host from Spade gets the drop on him, just literal minutes after they beat up the creepy stalker guy that Yami wished was dead, he realizes he's _screwed._

The jarring realization only hits when his squad members start yelling after him. He's impaled on a bunch of bones, ten feet into he air and William is passed out in the same position. He looks like he went through a meat grinder.

He's got no mana left to use for fighting, all of his limbs have lost feeling and his squad is nowhere near ambush ready. They're completely off guard but it doesn't stop them. Those that can move immediately spring into action.

He sees the devil host look at Asta, then the demonic arm that suddenly appeared and Yami can see his eyes widen in recognition. Shit. _Shit, shit, fuck, not Asta, spare him at least-_

Asta is his family, he's not letting Asta go back to whatever hell he repressed for three months, _let him do this at least-_

Finral intercepted the bone from snatching Asta and Yami's relief is palpable. Finral, _shit, he's never appreciated him enough_. He answered him with every ounce of power he could. Loyal, painfully so, and now trying to work his damned best to keep the demon host from taking another one of the bulls. Never know what you have until it's gone, _he supposed._

"A spatial mage, huh?" Yami hears the devil host and he mutters something under his breath. "As much as it would do us good to have Babylon, it's time."

A portal opens behind him and Yami realized that this was certain death.

Gauche yelled after him, shooting blasts with his mirror magic. They're stopped by the demon host's bones but he keeps blasting. Gauche, as much of a weird, sister-loving creep that guy was, he's loyal. Terrifyingly so. He's not above atrocities for the sake of his beloved people. That type of loyalty is rare, even if it's in the wrong type of person.

Vanessa summomed Rouge, ordering everyone to not let him get away. Vanessa, she really picked herself up in the past few months. Started training, laid off the alcohol and started going on missions. Yami still remembered the day he found her in that cage of a home. For someone with so many vices, she's determined for the people she loves.

Henry launched an attack forward. Henry was slow and a bit creepy but he was ultimately home. Kind, accepting and cherished his teammates dearly. For a while, he and Yami only had each other and even if that time had passed, he could still sometimes hear Henry thanking him for saving him.

He saw Asta, pale, sweaty and beaten to a pulp, staring at him like he was ready to die if what happened happened. Asta, a loud mouthed manaless brat who was as bullheaded as Yami. Yet despite all the destructive trouble he attracted, Yami wouldn't have traded him for anything.

Which was why _this was fine._ It's _not_ fine, he's getting carted off to certain death with the apocalypse soon after, but at the same time it is. Because he knows that they did their best, they beat the head honcho to a pulp and the second guy wasn't something they'd even thought of expecting. Because the only way they would have been able to stop it is if many of them had died getting them openings to strike this guy.

Because it's either Yami dies and his family lives longer or his family dies in front of him.

_And Yami is fine wit-_

_**"YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!"**_ He heard Asta yell and the smell of burning flesh invades his senses. He looked at Asta, who was barely standing and glowing in red light and strange patterns that burned into the flesh of his entire body. The left arm was holding his katana and was getting _grilled_ past the point of being recognisable.

Yami's heart fell to his stomach when the demon host turned back to Asta, ki almost unreadable with the exception of sheer fear. Asta slashed the katana at the demon host, who tried to block the slash of red, scorching light with the bones.

The slash went through the bones, shattering them and throwing the disintegrated pieces into the air before disappearing altogether. Fear spiked in the demon host. Yami, who could feal his right arm now, felt a sliver of hope.

Hope disappeared when Asta raised his arm for another slash, only for the red energy to pulse through the left side of the kid's body and explode. Energy sliced through Asta's skin, trailing patterns from his arm to his chest, his face and nearly down into his left hip.

Only a surface level of injury was there, Yami could tell, but the way blood flew into the air made even the demon host flinch and curse under his breath.

Nobody screamed at Asta to stop. Nobody dared to even let out a shudder as they took the demon host's opening and wrung it for all it's worth.

A portal opened above Yami, Rouge jumping out of it and on top of Yami's head.

And suddenly Yami was behind Vanessa, injuries and all.

From the angle he now saw, Yami realised Asta was the closest to the demon host. It was only a few feet but Asta was not even close to being able to move.

Asta's eyes widened in shock as his hand nearly dropped the katana and his feet gave out from underneath him. He gripped the katana, as much as he could with his bloodied hand but just as the sparks and light shone once again, Asta had all but vomited blood with glazed eyes.

The demon host apparently thought _"fuck it"_ and shot a bone from his arm at Asta.

"FINRAL!" Yami hadn't even finished yelling his name as Finral made a quick portal that intercepted the bone.

And then the demon host decided no, he will not actually fight like a man but will steal as a bastard.

Because Yami hears something appear in the dirt beneath him and in the next second there's more pain in his limbs as he appears skewered back on the bones of the enemy.

And all Yami can do is watch as Henry shot another attack forward that didn't reach, as Gauche's attacks were blocked by more bones and as Vanessa, Finral, Grey and Asta could only watch in fear and pain.

They're Yami's family and Yami's greatest regret would be to leave them without one last word.

His throat failed him so he smiles.

He smiles at all of them, sweat pouring down his face as it finally kicks in that he's about to die.

He smiles because he wants to make sure they remember it.

He smiles because he remembers sending Nacht to Spade Kingdom for espionage, and even if Nacht hated his guts, he'd be _damned_ to let the apocalypse happen because that asshole simply did not half ass things.

_'Its okay.'_ He tries to convey through the smile. _'You did great. You did the best you could. It's gonna be fine. I'm proud of you.'_

He can only listen to the yells of his name be muffled through the spatial magic and pass out.

When Yami woke up again, he realised he can no longer move, William is just barely awake next to him, desperately trying to pick the locks on their chains and he's in a dungeon.

It stinks. Most likely of rotten dead bodies of prisoners.

" _Hey_." Yami tells William. "They got you too?"

"Yeah. How many of yours survived?" The implications of Golden Dawn being massacred but somewhat saved is in that sentence but Yami doesn't pry.

"We actually won."

" _No fucking way._ " He can hear William's frustration as the wooden locking breaks. That's the first time he's heard William curse. The world really is coming to an end. "How?"

"Dark magic affects demons, antimagic throws the biggest middle finger regardless of who it is. We got a real nasty stalker guy too." Yami rasped. It's funny, really. He and William are about to be killed to open a portal of demons any minute now and yet they're making small talk as if its another captain's meeting. "Asta had to sacrifice his arm."

"My god, all that and we still failed-" Williams voice is on the brinks of hysterics when it gets cut off by some large heavy door slamming the wall. William dropped and hid the lock picks desperately trying to hide them in his pocket. " _Shit_."

Footsteps soon followed after and Yami's still blacked out brain realises they have visitors.

Into the cell walk in the demon host that got the drop on him, some lady with an eyepatch and a crown and Creepy Stalker himself, hobling in while holding his chest. Yami felt immense pride bloom in his heart knowing that his loud and benevolent nutcase soldier debilitated the fucker.

"Hey, Big Brother Dante, why don't we fight these guys? The arcane stage mage managed to hurt you, right? Rig-" Eyepatch didn't get to finish as the demon host shushed her.

"Yami Sukehiro." Creepy Stalker greets him.

"Creepy Stalker who got his ass whooped by a midget." Yami sassed back and it earns a resounding laugh from William. The guy with the bone magic, Bonehead, glared at William.

"I simply must thank you for the malice you have given me and the identity of Babylon. You've made it surprisingly easy to get the two things we needed the most."

And at that Yami takes off the kiddie gloves and puts on his _"I will burn you until you are ashes"_ knuckledusters.

"Asta wouldn't touch a demon even if it _made him a god_ , but with your fugly mugs, you just make it easy to be repulsed."

"Babylon is blind. They've been indoctrinated, forced to forget what they truly are. To assume that they are one of you humans. It's a shame, all those years of work will be gone to waste, once we open the gates." The creepy stalker said, except it doesn't sound like he's talking. He sounds more he's parroting the words. "But we cannot rush recovery. No, we certainly can't. Babylon is far too deep in this delusional idea to be brought out by force. Once the path is set and demons roam this land, there will be _nowhere for them to hide._ They will have no choice but to finally listen."

"As if Asta would listen to the people who sexually assaulted him! You think you know him?" Yami bit out, rage overflowing his mind. They talked about Asta as if they owned him, as if they were _entitled_ to him. "For weeks he'd either not sleep for days or barely come out of his room. First night? He looked like he was about to drop dead right then and there and he'd be thankful for it. He tried to stop sleeping and managed to get four days in. Four days! How much do you think he's suffered to push the biological borders for four straight days?! He had to make a deal with the nasty bastard inside his grimoire just to stay away from you. And you think he's going to listen? _He'd sooner slice his own head off._ "

Yami's heavy, ragged breaths echoed in the cell. The demon hosts stared at him blankly, almost as if they were both confused and... _scared?_ They made a few odd expressions that Yami could recognise as not being able to find something important.

Then, _not a second later_ , demonic malice flooded the room and a gust of wind swept through the tiny cell. And then the dust cleared.

Yami had to bite back a laugh at what he was seeing. The creepy stalker, Boneface and Eyepatch were all at each other's necks, black demon power permeating their bodies. There was a menacing, malicious aura around them that made Yami's instincts scream but with the restraints on his body, it wouldn't do much.

There's a minute of silence as they hold their attacks pointed at each other, glancing at each other.

_**"Lucifero had to have done it."**_ Eyepatch said, except it's not her. There's something odd in the way _she speaks and holds herself like-_

Like she's a whole different person now.

_Oh,_ Yami realized, _these are their demons._

**_"I did not touch them. Megicula, you were the first they encountered. You must've done something. After all, first impressions-"_** said the stalker but his voice is raspy, calm and cold in a way that burns.

**_"You do not need to touch them, you have gravity magic. Admit it, one of you two did."_** Bonehead says but there's vicious mockery and anger in his voice, uncharacteristic of him. He then turned to Eyepatch. **_"BUT YOU WERE THE FIRST ONE TO ENCOUNTER THEM IN YOUR DOMAIN, MEGICULA! YOU COULD'VE DONE IT!"_**

_**"YOU COULDVE DONE IT TOO, AZAZEL, GRABBING HIM WITH YOUR SPACIAL MAGIC! IT EXPLAINS WHY HE DISSAPPEARS SO OFTEN!"** _Eyepatch yelled back with all the ferocity they had. **_"HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THE RIPPED DRESS? YOU MUST HAVE GOTTEN HANDSY-"_**

**_"I DID NOT EVEN KNOW-"_ **

**_"WELL IT WAS ONE OF YOU TWO! NONE OF THE OTHER HIGHER DEVILS WOULD HAVE HAD THE GALL TO DO THAT."_** Creepy stalker yelled at both of them.

**_"Oh, so you have more faith in those lower than us but not your own left and right hand?!"_ **

**_"THEY FEAR ME, AZAZEL, AND YOU SHOULD TOO!"_ **

**_"THEN ADMIT YOUR DISGUSTING ACTS!"_ **

**_"I DID NOT-"_ **

**_"YOU HAD TO HAVE, WHO ELSE-"_ **

**_"YOU! YOU, MEGICULA, ARE THAT SOMEONE ELSE!"_ **

Yami and William watched in mute surprise as the three demons spat accusations at each other through their hosts. They were left almost completely forgotten.

"... Think this could buy us some time to escape?" He whispered to William.

"I think you've only shortened our lives." William replied.

"Okay, but I bet our dumbass squads are going to try and bust in." Yami whispered again.

"Your squad - maybe. Golden Dawn might not have that option."

"You say that like they don't love you. If anything is going to turn Golden Dawn into a pack of maniacs, it's this." Yami smirks as he gestures to the demon hosts, who have now begun viciously fighting. William, even through the stress, gives a small chuckle.

"You're oddly hopeful about this."

"Hey, we're not dead yet, right? We'll lose that hope when we die, okay?"

* * *

Asta woke up with a start, heart hammering in his chest and sweat covering his body.

He was cold, sore and worst of all _it was quiet._

Asta was used to always being around sound, whether it be the bustle of the town, the cheers and racket of the Black Bull's base, small talk between squadmates or Antima chattering with him.

But there was none of that. It was eerily, _painfully quiet._ So quiet Asta could hear the blood rush in and out of his own heart in fast, hasty pumps.

His mind travelled back to what happened l _ast-_

Black Bull base. Demon host attack. Dante. Lucifero. Blackout. Lucifero again. Qlipoth. Babylon. Captain Yami-

_Captain Yami got taken._

_Captain Yami got taken and it was because he-_

His eyes landed on his hands. One was pitch black and left odd criss-cross markings along his arm, leaving his fingers red and his nails black.

The left arm wasn't so pleasant. His skin had become marred with scars and linear markings, symbols and whatnot. Silver patches, indicating of healed burns, covered the majority of his arm, trailing back down to his torso and up his shoulder-

Asta whipped his head to look at his reflection in the mirror.

The markings had reached his face and while the healed silver burns had in total stopped just under his cheek, one line in particular went straight through his eye and disappeared into his hair.

He was so shaken by his appearance that he didn't notice how his grimoire had glowed.

Against his better judgement, his eyes turned to the grimoire, which revealed a pitch black katana.

Asta's breath hitched, stuttered and came out in panicked huffs. The silence was suffocating, _his mind racing-_

**_Your fault. All your fault. Too weak, too weak to even protect-_ **

Asta had forgotten everything but his grimoire and pants as he ran out the door.

His bare feet stumbled on his boots as he grabbed them and began putting them on mid-run. Run, he had to run, he had to, every minute he was still standing here was a minute in which _Yami was barely away from death he-_

He had to rescue him. He had to go and _stop the Qlipoth. If he didn't, if-_

He had to get out of the hospital. The silence was too much and his brain kept trying to occupy the lack of sound with horrid thoughts.

Asta had barely stumbled out of the front door before he ran into the street. It was cold, _so very cold_ but any form of discomfort was better _than-_

_He couldn't move._ He was suddenly frozen in his spot, with his hair stuck to his face from sweat. _When had he sweat so much?_

"Where are you going in such a hurry, hm? You didn't even take your headband with you." A voice behind him said. Was that person the one holding him?

"I... I have to go-" Asta chocked out. "I have to save captain Yami-"

"You can't. You were no match for that devil host on your own and there are two more that can stand alongside him. Even the devil you're relying on has given up on you. What you're doing right now isn't courageous or anything. It's reckless and stupid." Jokes on this guy, all Asta's ever had was recklessness and stupidity.

And anger. _Reckless, bloodfilled anger._

One of the things that made Asta lash out without a thought, which ended with him lying on the ground, pressed down by shadowy arms.

Asta struggled against the bindings, emotions seemingly burning through whatever control head on them. His left arm burned, the pressure on his arms, torso and hip making it writhe in pain.

It already felt bad enough as it was half numb and thick, now-

"A human who cannot defeat me will never be able to save Yami."

Asta's own mind staggered at the notion and he realised something.

He's weak. But why?

Why was he _so weak?_

_Why was it always like this, on the ground, helpless and unable to move, struggling against whatever made him so helpless with no avail?_

_Why, why, why, why was it always like this-_

_Why him?_

_Why was it always him? Why did things like these happen to him specifically? Was he always so weak-_

Tears freely ran down Asta's face as he desperately clawed at the shadows underneath him. His burned arm ached under the pressure Asta was gripping the ground with.

"If only-" Asta sobbed. The tears kept pouring out and Asta just- he didn'tknow what to do anymore. "If I was stronger-"

"You're a bit of a fool but you're a good person." The hooded person said, taking off his hood. It was a man with long black hair, tied up in a ponytail and surprisingly calm smile. Suddenly Asta felt a familiar presence. The presence of a demon. The person suddenly started growing horns and Asta's heartbeat sky-rocketed. "Don't worry. Yami's still alive."

"Who the heck... are you a demon?" Asta asked in panic.

"Not at all. I'm the vice captain of the Black Bulls, Nacht. And I can teach you how to properly use the devil's power." Nacht said as a small, horned creature appeared on his shoulder.

The minute Asta recognised the ki as a devil, he felt a similar sensation to burning on his left arm and all but fried the arms holding him down. Some even exploded.

" _Ack_!" Asta yelled out in pain as the familiar sygils on his arm shone and disappeared. Nacht took two steps back, also shocked by the sudden lightshow.

**"Whoa, whoa, _relax,_ shorty!"** The demon on Nacht's shoulder said, instinctively hiding labeling the man's head.

"I- I don't- it's _never_ done that before." Asta tried to explain with a shaky voice, cradling his aching arm as some shadowy arms pulled him up from the ground. "I- it's not-"

"Calm down, take a deep breath. You're still in shock it seems. That arm must have reacted negatively when Gimodelo appeared." Nacht said. "Just breathe. We don't need a lightshow."

"I- I'm sorry-" Asta chocked out, more tears threatening to fall from his eyes.

"It's not your fault. Try to calm down first." Nacht said, calmly trying to persuade Asta to not start crying again.

Asta sniffled and rubbed at his eyes, trying to breathe.

"We've still got time before he dies. He's still alive." Nacht said blankly. "As irritating as he is, he's as tough as they come."

"How do you know that? And are-" Asta started but then noticed the Black Bulls symbols on the man's satchel. "You're our vice captain?"

"Yes, but it's something Yami arbitrarily decided. But I suppose its no wonder you don't know, since I've only been to the hideout once." Nacht said.

"What? Why?"

"Because I hate Yami. And because I've been undercover in the Spade Kingdom this whole time."

"Is- did you- _did you get caught_?" Asta asked, nervously looking at Gimodelo who simply waved back.

"No? Why did you assume that?"

"You came back and you also brought back a demon, so it looked like they tried to turn you against us by having a demon possess you but it turned out badly for them so you escaped with whatever Intel you had?" Asta asked, unsure of whether or not that was the case. Nacht only raised his eyebrows in surprise as Gimodelo laughed.

**"Haw, haw, The shorty sure has a wild imagination!"**

"Hey! I'm taller than you, the only shorty here i you!" Asta rebuked.

**"As if this is my real form."** Gimodelo laughed, only to start disappearing. **"Aw, I want to talk more-"**

"That's not why I came back. I was able to act more in light of recent events for a while and got the information I needed. I head back as soon as possible once I gained all I needed, only to come back to..." Nacht said, trailing off to imply what he came back to.

Asta understood what he meant by that.

"I don't know you. I don't even know if I should trust you, but you're the only person I can turn to right now. Please, help me understand the devil's power and get stronger." Asta asked Nacht.

* * *

Despite Asta wanting to get to the training immediately, either to work to stave off another emotional breakdown or because he had a feeling that time was of the essence, Nacht refused.

Something about Asta needing rest and there being a captain's meeting in the morning.

The captain's meeting is nothing what Asta had imagined. Truth be told, it was his first time coming to a meeting like that. He had imagined some grand hall with a wide table engraved with the map of the continent on it.

Maybe because of the urgency of the meeting or maybe because his own expectations were high, he wasn't sure to think of the room with the simple rectangle table.

At the sight of Yuno there, Asta had waved at him. It had been a long several months since they'd seen each other after all.

Yuno, who looked like he hadn't slept at all, didn't even have time to register what, who, when and how before paling.

The scars and demonic arm must have put Yuno in a stupor.

Nacht then revealed that he not only was Asta's vice captain, but was also a demon host. With 4 contracted demons.

Asta could feel the way Julius' ki suddenly shifted in a more defensive stance.

Asta couldn't fault him. He was also a bit defensive the minute he saw the four silhouettes in masks hold the captains in place.

It's been a while since he saw so many in one place.

Julius confirmed that Nacht was indeed his vice captain but he didn't know he was a devil host, which only made Asta more anxious.

Nacht then proceeded to spell out the intel he had found out.

Captain Yami and Vangeance were going to be sacrificed to a forbidden ritual which would open all of the gates in the Underworld for devil kind to escape, leaving the world to fend for itself. If the last gate were to be opened, Lucifero would be freed and the world would end.

All in about three days. Asta had to check his pulse to see if he was alive and _not actually hearing an auditory hallucination of his worst nightmare._

_Nope, pulse is there and beating a hundred times a second, all while the apocalypse was **literally a weekend away.**_

And apparently Nacht hated the notion too.

"Three days from now on, the gate to the Underworld will open. Before it does, we must retake Yami and Vangeance and destroy the Qlipoth. For that, we'll build an elite force around Asta, made up of the potential to defeat a devil and strike Spade Kindgom." Nacht declared. "This time, it's our turn."

And so the plan started rolling.

And then Yuno revealed he was apparently long lost Spade royalty.

What the goddamned hell is wrong with the world this week? More has happened in less than four days than it has in six months.

"Yuno, what-? _For real?!_ " Asta exclaimed.

"Yeah..." Yuno said somewhat dejectedly. "Apparently they evacuated me to Clover Kingdom when the rebellion against the royal family broke out."

"You're not even fazed?" Asta asked. This was incredibly distressing. Asta could understand that he was already in a load of emotional turmoil, but just _how much has Yuno been carrying?_ First you get told you're a prince, then your squad gets attacked and the enemy takes your captain but not before _wiping out the entire squadron?_ "Are you okay? Mentally, I mean?"

Yuno made a sour and tired expression at him. Asta shut his mouth at that.

"The guy at my place used to be a servant of the old spade royal family. Out of all of us here, he should know about the castle's structure and design." Yuno explained. "And before any of you object, it's not just me. Ever since the elf incident, you've all been suspicious of Captain Vangeance, too! You're not at fault for that, he wasn't able to choose between humans and elves. But that's exactly why he's been hurting yet fighting more earnestly than anyone!"

"How can we trust your word on it?" Charlotte spoke up.

"Back then, after that guy got me, I remember seeing something. I remember Captain Vangeance who was fighting, yet protecting the members of the Golden Dawn. He was captured because he protected us. To us, he's the more than just a reliable captain. That Zenon guy thinks he wiped out the brigade. He's wrong. We survived and we're alive, thanks to Captain Vangeance's spell!"

"You little- quit barking-"

"If we cannot save him, if weare not able to get him back, which one of you will?!" Yuno cut off Jack. Asta had never seen Yuno so angry, so damn determined to actually destroy someone.

"Yuno's right." Asta spoke up. "If anyone else were to do it, wouldn't Captain Vangeance lose hope? Would he assume his brigade is dead? What then? What waits for him back here? The Golden Dawn is all Captain Vangeance has. If Yuno's not the ones who saves him, would he be right in the manner that his squadron had abandoned him?"

He was met with considerable silence.

"Yuno has the most chances of winning. He's got the most hands on experience when it comes to Zenon. He knows what he's up against, he knows how to go up against him. Even we, the Black Bulls, even though we managed to defeat Dante, we failed to bring down Zenon who got the jump on us. Even all I managed to get out of that fight..." Asta looked down and raised his shirt with his left arm to show the massive burns that had crawled down the left side of his torso. Even when he had finally seen the extensive damage, it was still terrifying. "Was this."

Most of the captains flinched at the sight of such an extended burn. But Yuno- _Yuno had all but seethed in wrath._

"Even with this, I can't offer any battle experience from the encountered. If anyone here knows how to fight him, it's Yuno. No buts, no ifs. It has to be Yuno." Asta said as he pulled his shirt back down and faced Yuno. "I can't fight Zenon but you can. Can I make a request?"

"And what would that be?"

"Beat his ass into a pulp. A _bloody_ one." Asta finished. Yuno simply smirked. He'll take that as a yes.

Captain Fuegoleon then mentioned contacting Heart Kingdom, to which Charlotte said that they lost contact.

And Nacht dropped the bomb saying that Vanica may have attacked the heart Kingdom.

The hall fell into a flurry, with Julius pulling out his communication device and the captains huddling around him anxiously.

Asta felt himself get pushed a little by some of them, only for a hand to grasp his left shoulder and steady him. Asta turned to meet his eyes with Yuno.

"You look tired." Asta said.

"And you look like a crispy bushtit." Yuno replied sarcastically. His eyes trailed down to his shirt and collarbone. "Did Zenon-"

"No. This is... you know how the Black Bulls have a saying "surpass your limits"? I, uh, took that a bit far. Who, uh, knew antimagic could burn your arm if you're too fast with it." Asta said, lying a little about how he had somehow managed to weaponise the red light and concentrate it into his left arm. Well, guess he'll have to figure out how to do that. Yuno only narrowed his eyes at that.

"I'll win."

"I know you will. You're Yuno and my rival, afterall."

"Lets bet on it. If i win my battle first and end up backing you up, you'll have to go on a date with me. A _real_ date." Yuno said in all seriousness.

Asta could only say _"huh"_ before the device finally connected and Gadja showed up on the screen.

* * *

When Nacht brought him to an abandoned and run down mansion, Asta didn't know what to expect.

He certainly didn't expect there to be a mausoleum _right under the living room._

When Asta got pulled down and landed on the floor, he expected to be intimidated by the large hall of eight pillars with skulls upon them, a chandelier that seemed to run on red, oddly familiar fire and a platform with a demonic circle on it.

Instead, he felt something akin to deja-vu. Like he'd been here before.

_But when? He couldn't tell._

"For the next two days, I'll teach you everything I know about devil magic. In turn, you'll grow exponentially." Nacht said and noticed how Asta was staring at the platform eerily. "What's wrong?"

"This place has a familiar atmosphere."

"What?"

"Nevermind. It's time for training, right?" Asta asked, getting giddy.

As Nacht explained more about what they would do, Asta tried poking the antimagic devil again. Ever since Asta woke up in the hospital, he hadn't said a word. Asta had been worried that he'd left, but the dreamless sleep he'd gotten had proven him wrong.

He was wondering if he was mad at him for pulling the stunt with Satanael's power.

Just as Asta entered the magic circle, he felt something. _Like a push and a deep pull._

Suddenly antimagic started seeping out of him, almost completely, and his right arm disappeared. And in front of him appeared the familiar silhouette of his devil.

And the silhouette peeled off his body, revealing dark tinted sclera, red eyes, white fluffy hair and a menacing grin.

_**"Who'd think you'd let me out so willingly."**_ The demon rasped and sighed. Like he was about to do something he didn't want to do. **_"It's been ages since I've been in the physical world."_**

"So that's what you really look like!" Asta exclaimed. He's always seen the dark, large silhouette in his dreams but never the actual face, like with Lucifero and the other demons in the Underworld. Now that he thought back to it. "Actually, there's something I've been wanting to tell you for a while. Thank you!"

The demon staggered a little, but tried to keep his face neutral.

"During fights and... other instances, your power saved over and over again. I'm pretty sure I would have been dead or worse off if it wasn't for you!" Asta continued, thinking of the possibilities.

If he hadn't received that grimoire that day, what would have happened? How many casualties would he have faced? Would the people he knew still be alive if he hadn't? What would have happened to the kingdom, _if it hadn't been for the demon? Would he still be Asta?_

If it hadn't been for the demon running interference on their side, would Asta still have been mentally in one piece? Would he have been tracked down by the demon host's from Spade and taken away? _Would he have been forced to run through the neutral zone, praying for his life to never be caught by them?_

He didn't know what would have happened. He's too scared to think about the what ifs. So every piece of gratitude he had towards the devil in his grimoire was genuine.

"So thank you so much, I mean it!" Asta finished. He could tell the demon was flustered but it disappeared in moments, replaced by something angrier, something more vengeful.

**_"I knew it. You're a real bizarre idiot of a person. And that's why I'm about to kill you."_** The demon said menacingly. Asta was only getting more confused.

"...Are you mad at me for what I pulled in the last fight?" Asta asked. The demon ignored the question and made the grimoire rise up out of the bag he had for it.

**_"You either win and get a contract or you lose and something worse happens."_** The demon ignored him.

"Wait, didn't we already have a contract?" Asta asked, dodging as swords started flying out of his grimoire.

**_"No, actually."_** The demon said as he spun his hand, casually summoning the sword out of Asta's grimoire. He noticed he was a lot angrier as of late. Ever since the fight with Lucifero and his host, Dante, he's been quietly seething. ** _"It's sort of... de facto but not de jure."_**

"Oh! So like, just in name and minimal connection? Okay." Asta said, quickly dodging or blocking blow after blow. "Hey, are sure you're not angry at me?"

**_"I'm not angry."_** The demon seethed and forced the demon slayer to make a rough slash at Asta. Asta took that as a yes. **_"And you should be a lot more careful as to what you're doing. Your autonomy is on the line and you're just making small talk?"_**

" _Autonomy_?!" Asta proclaimed. He checked Antima's ki and was surprised that there were so many wild emotions going around. The demon he knew, as mysterious and cool as he was, never really gave off so much ki. Something must have set him off during the fight.

_Something awful._

"Defeat him." Nacht said from outside of the circle. "You came here to get stronger and the only way is to defeat him. You have to win no matter what or the devil will take over your body and become a grotesque monster."

Suddenly Asta remembered something. People, followers, _adoring fans, all coming to someone and asking of things and then-_

_The devil-binding ritual, those who wanted more power or to know more about demons had come to Babylon to become hosts had to complete it. A rite of passage for power._

_For some, genuinely curious souls, a chance and a path. For fools who wanted to usurp Babylon - a trap._

_Humans would ask, Babylon would provide a carefully picked artifact and the ritual would begin._

_But not all those who were genuine would pass. If you were weak, you'd fall into the same pit as scum who had tried to snag the position from Babylon._

_Genuine desire is not enough-_

Asta shook his head, trying to push away the sudden information and focus on dodging. No, he had to focus on Antima-

Asta noticed something in the demon's ki. Regret, sorrow, anger, vengeance - all stemming from something else. _Empathy_. And something else -

Desperation. _Hope_. Faulty attacks with openings. A small string of regret with every blow he swings.

The antimagic devil doesn't want to kill him. But it doesn't want to lose either.

"You're not actually trying to kill me. I can tell from your ki. But..." Asta began. "Just who are you fighting for?"

"What are you talking about? There's no such thing as a devil with principles." Nacht said.

"No. Just because you're a devil, doesn't necessarily mean they're a bad guy." Asta breathed out. "And there's no way you're one."

That flipped a switch. Malice and hate fell to the background, replaced by sadness, nostalgia and care. Only to burn away in seconds, replaced by regret, pain and grief.

Asta realised at that point, why the antimagic devil wanted to destroy Lucifero so badly. Lucifero took away someone important from him, someone who meant more to the short devil than even Asta.

All this malice was because of someone's death. The demon's had his own reasons for this. For being in the grimoire, for loathing demons, for helping Asta and for keeping him away from the Underworld.

Asta won't let the devil's feelings go to waste. If he was going with everything he had, then Asta should too.

And he did... even if he felt bad for punching him the face. He was pretty handsome too, actually. When he wasn't splitting his face in half with the malicious grin on the planet, that is.

The devil summoned more swords out of the grimoire and Asta just barely managed to grab Captain Yami's katana.

And then the battle took its course. Asta dodged and blocked his attacks, was sure to make non-lethal blows and kept at it. Again and again, until the demon fell.

"I win." Asta wheesed out. Upon seeing the devil's bruised and bloody face, the host immediately reached out to him. Asta hoped he didn't break anything. He swore he was controlling his strength. _Did demons bruise easily?_ "Crap, you're bleeding, are you-"

Before Asta could reach the devil, a black color with demon writing appeared on his neck and chains pulled the demon into a bowing position.

"Ack, _what the hell-"_ Asta flinched back as the chains connected to spikes on the ground. "Crap, _how do we take-_ "

"Well done." Nacht finally spoke up. "The preparations for the devil ritual are now complete. You'll be able to make a contract-"

Asta cut off Nacht by stabbing the sword into the ground, firmly securing it and Staring the demon straight in the eyes.

"Be my friend." Asta said firmly. It's at the demon's confused face that Asta realises that maybe the idea of friends doesn't exist in the Underworld. "Wait, do devils know what friends are? Uh, friends are... people who work together as equal partners- _wait a minute but we're already-"_

"Stop, _stop, stop,_ are attempting to make an equal contract with that devil?" Nacht interrupted them. Asta nodded strongly.

"I said it before, _I'll say it again_." Asta began. "The reason why I've gotten this far is thanks to this guy. But I don't know a single thing about him. And we've talked, for almost nine months too! And yet I don't even know your name. And I can tell that I'm the reason why you've been able to get this far too! So I want us to be equals. Not some form of master and servant."

Not like Babylon was with their demons, who used each other. He wanted them to be something genuine. _He wants them to be friends. Actual friends._

"You're being careless. You have no guarantee that that devil will listen to you. He might even betray you. No matter how you look at it, it's your loss most of the time. There's no merit to a contract like that, not to mention the fact that once he's bored of you, he can easily disrupt the contract." Nacht said, shadows casting a menacing atmosphere over him.

The last part made Asta flinch. The demon noticed Asta flinching. He knew why, he knew _exactly_ why. Yet here he was, throwing them both into such a mess.

"No, he wasn't fighting in the first place - he didn't want to hurt me. And I didn't want to hurt him either. Both of us kept holding back, but he kept saying stuff about killing yet held back the most. He's strong, _I know he is._ If he wanted to kill me, I'd be dead. But..." Asta said, pointing a finger at the demon. And if Asta was dead, his demon would become a criminal among demons and the high devils will be in for a nasty surprise when they realise Babylon is dead again. Asta turned back to the demon.

The demon kept his eyes away, a bitter emotion bubbling in his ki. Shame, betrayal, anguish. The chains on his neck were disappearing yet he made no move to get off the ground.

"You're the type that can't kill people. And neither am I." Asta said bitterly.

"Even if it wasn't for the circumstances we're in, you never would have wanted to kill me, even if i had no relation to the Underworld. You... you weren't mad at me but you were mad for the sake of someone. I was always scared that you were lying to me these past 9 months. That you were just acting in a way I would like to get my favor, to keep me unaware of what you do." Asta admitted. He wasn't lying. On some nights, when he was still reminiscing of what happened in that hellhole, he wondered if Antima was lying. That all of this was just a ploy to curry favouritism. It was a dark, irrational fear that made him fear the day Antima would get sick of him and leave Asta alone, like the demons that had left Babylon. Like Nacht had mentioned previously.

"But I'm happy i was wrong." Asta breathed out, eyes stinging as he blinked away the tears. " All this time, you were mad and devastated on someone's behalf. Which meant that we could understand each other and... _I'm happy that it's true_. So I want to know you more about you. _Seriously_ this time."

Asta heard Gimodelo say something to Nacht but ignored it.

"I want us to be friends, _real_ friends. I realised that, even after all this time, I barely know anything about you. I don't even know your name. But I also want to keep what we have. So this isn't a ritual of servitude. This is a ritual of... devil friending? Not to mention you never really answered my question about the wedding thing." Asta said bashfully.

The demon looked confused at the last sentence. Asta sighed and decided it's now or never. He felt stupid for never really trying to know more about the demon. The first impression had left him paranoid, afraid of knowing something that would haunt him. He wanted to keep himself at a comfortable distance, away from demons. Away from the nightmares. _Away from everything connected to Babylon._

Now he just felt stupid for pushing away the only person who he could freely talk to about it. And he made a deal with him, so he'll honour it. _Even if he's a whopping nine months late._

**_"I used you._** " The demon finally said with a bitter rumble in his throat. **_"I used you for vengeance against Lucifero."_**

"... okay?"

" ** _I don't actually know Babylon, or anything of the sort. Just hearsay. But I knew that demon knew. I knew he'd try and seek you out. I used you to get back at him in a way. To take away the one thing he wanted the most as revenge. I-"_** the demon continued, voice getting raspier and raspier like he was desperately trying to get the words out. **_"Don't you hate me?"_**

"No. I guess I used you too. But... I don't want to _use you_. I want to be _next to you_. Not because I need something from you but just because I want to. I wanna be selfish just this once." Asta said and he smiled bitterly at the demon. "I hope we can both be selfish together."

The demon's lip quivered and Asta could see the tell tale signs of tears at his eyes. But through his ki Asta could feel a deep ache, a form of want and desperate desire for something.

"So I know you technically did it first and you've probably heard it a million times from me directed at the wrong person, but this time I mean it. Completely, with my whole heart. If could have your name, then please hear me out." Asta said as he got down on one knee, looked the antimagic demon in the eyes, grasped his hand and pressed it to his chest. The demon was blushing up a storm, suddenly realising what was happening. He laughed, either disbelieving that this actually happening or thinking this was some sick joke.

**_"It's Liebe."_ **

"Liebe, please marr-"

A loud echo of a yell cut them off, sounding a lot like a screech of sorts. Asta and Liebe looked at the source and found Nacht holding his arms in an echo position and staring straight into Asta's soul.

" _What_ in the name of _all that is sacred_ are you doing?" Nacht asked Asta, voice gravely close to _murderous_.

"Making a contract?" Asta said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. And suddenly Liebe laughed. A genuinely loud laugh. "What's so funny?"

**_"Hell's bells, he doesn't know that you're Babylon's reincarnation."_ **The demon said, instantly shocking the demons that were perched on Nacht. **_"He's got no idea that we've actually had a pseudo contract to keep you from slipping into hell in your dreams."_**

" _Ooooh_!" Asta realised. _Right_ , Nacht has no idea that he's Babylon but also _not_ Babylon. Turning to back to Nacht, he saw that he was rubbing his temples, head inclined towards the ceiling as Gimodelo was rubbing soothing circles on the man's shoulder. "Vice captain Nacht?"

"Babylon, _why_ did you not mention this earlier?" Nacht said, clearly wondering why in the world was he put to suffer on this earth. Asta flinched at the name.

_**"Because he's Asta, not Babylon."**_ Liebe piped up, hand crawling under Asta's armpit to pull him closer. **_"Babylon died a millenia ago. Go ask the demons from the first Qlipoth advent what kind of person was Babylon and compare these two. Those shitstains would go on for ages about how Babylon was wise beyond recognition, a monster with almost endless mana and would kill humans at a moments notice but never a demon."_**

"How do we know you're not sucking up to them?" Nacht said in a voice eerily similar to that one instance of bloodlust that he felt during the captain's meeting.

**_"I don't know Babylon. Babylon doesn't mean anything to me."_ **Liebe seethed. _**"Asta does."**_

"Prove it." Nacht ground out and Liebe looked at the summoning circle, got up and walked towards it. He stopped at the edge, turned to stare directly into Nacht's eyes and passed through the barrier and down the stairs.

Nacht flinched, eyes widening. Liebe then turned around and went back up the stairs and into the circle, where Asta was staring at them both.

**_"I don't care about humans. My only goal is to exterminate those who wronged me and there's not a single human on that list. Is that proof enough? Or do i-"_ **

"Stop, I can defend myself." Asta said as he flicked Liebe's forehead. "How long have you been able to do that?"

**_"All the time? I have no mana so most interdimensional gates have no effect on me."_** Liebe said, seemingly not even trying to hide the fact that he could easily cross between the Underworld and the human world. Liebe turned to glare at the grimoire **_"But I was sealed in that stupid thing for ages."_**

"Wait... but if that's the case, why would you help me all those months ago?" Asta asked. "Why... do _all that_ when you could just have gotten me to unseal you? Nero could have done it months ago!"

_**"Didn't wanna."** _

"Huh?!"

**_"Don't "huh" me, you'd run for the hills if I did! Besides, who'd protect your dreams if I did leave?"_** Liebe said as he pulled on Asta's nose.

"Ow! But you wanted to kill... you know who. Wouldn't it have been easier to do that with physical form?"

Liebe went silent.

"Liebe?"

**_"It's not about the vengeance thing. I figured we'd find them sooner or later. But after that seance after killing Zagred... I just couldn't let you go. I couldn't."_** Liebe said, turning away from him.

**'Demons are greedy, selfish bastards. I'm one of them but after what happened- I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready for the idea of losing another person I cared about. Not to that bastard. Not at all. I tried to keep my distance, I tried to keep it professional and materialistic but fuck. I wanted to stay with you. I wanted you to stay with me...'** Asta heard Liebe in his head, small flashes of pictures of someone bleeding through their chest being among them.

Oh.

_Oh no._

Asta grabbed Liebe and hugged him like he was going to dissappear. He felt Liebe hesitantly wrap his arms around him.

"I'm not going anywhere." Asta said into the side of Liebe's head, his horns poking against his hair. "You hear me? You're _stuck_ with me. I'm your reckless, _absurd idiot_ now. _Forever_."

**_"Shit... why do you have to say shit like this all the time?"_ **Liebe whispered as he hid his face in Asta's shoulder. It felt nice, quiet. _Peaceful_. Like the world had _shrunk to just the two of-_

" _Ahem_."

_...oh right, Nacht was still here._

"If you two are done with the love fest, Babylon still needs to make a contract. You could go without one, as you have up till now but you need to get stronger. And not for just power at this point, but the safety of the demon too. You can imagine how... _jealous_ most demons would become if they heard of this." Nacht said, incredibly tired but seemingly content with the fact that Asta was a kind person, regardless of who he was talking to.

"I'm not Babylon. I have just barely the minimum but the idea of Babylon that the demons have is gone. It's dead in the ground and they're under the impression that they need to " _fix_ " me. They don't, _they can't_." Asta stated, pulling away from the hug. He saw that Nacht's demons were also there, though in smaller forms. One was staring at him, the two others were hiding behind Nacht while Gimodelo simply waved at him. "They lost the caring and loving Babylon when they decided that the Qlipoth could replace them. I'm not that. I don't want to be that. I'm Asta, an orphan with no mana and a demon contract who wants to protect his friends and change the way peasants live. End of discussion. Plus we were technically married before this."

Asta then turned back to the demon, ignoring the way Nacht's shoulders relaxed.

"Let's take down the demons together and get vindication. Together." Asta extended his burned hand to Liebe, who grasped it in return. Four rings of light enveloped their hands, Two outside their wrists and two smaller ones on their ring fingers. A tattoo of a band with demonic writing appeared on their wrists, while the bands on their fingers seemed more intricate and with a magic circle in the middle.

It didn't burn, thankfully, but the sensation felt a lot more like a cooling salve. _It was almost pleasant._

Asta was pretty sure that once all this was over, captain Yami was going to grill him into an early grave for messing with demonic rituals.

Yet he can't really find himself to regret it.

"A contract like this is unprecedented. In fact, i don't know a single fool in history who'd willing marry a devil. Who'd have thought you could do this... you chose right. An unorthodox right but still _right._ " Nacht said as he went up into the platform, smiling. Asta noticed that, while his ki was very hidden, it seemed relieved. Maybe even happy. "But now... mind telling me exactly why you didn't tell me you were Babylon?"

"Does it matter?" Asta asked, not liking where this was going.

"Depends. Do you want to know about it?" Nacht asked. Asta was caught off guard for a bit.

"I suppose I can understand why one would want to keep it hidden from humans. Your title of Babylon is sensitive information, and if fallen into the wrong hands could turn you into an enemy. I assume only a few select people know?" Nacht began talking. Asta only nodded. "Then why keep this fact hidden from an ally demon host?"

**_"Are you really an ally?"_** Liebe intervened, catching Asta off guard. **_"You have four demon contracts and you've been away in Spade for who knows how long and have managed to obtain key information about what Lucifero is planning. How do we know you're not just leading Clover's strongest mages into a bloodbath to leave all of the continent defenseless? I know what higher ranking demons are capable of and right now Clover Kingdom is the only one with a stable defense."_**

"He's the vice captain, he wouldn't betray us. And he was against the Dark Triad in the first place!" Asta defended Nacht.

**_"He's a good actor in that case-"_ **

"You're not wrong." Nacht said suddenly, catching the two off guard. "For being suspicious of me, that is. How i managed to gain my power is nobody's business but my own. As for whether or not I know what we're getting into, our goal isn't necessarily to fight all of the demon hosts there. We need to take out the Dark Triad at the same time and rescue the hostages. If we're able to do that, the gates won't open."

**_"That's an ideal scenario but you know damn well it's gonna go wrong. Say we defeat the three bastards and stop the ritual. They'll have a backup plan for if it goes tits up, likely with more demons. By then, we'll be injured and have no means of victory. Then what?"_ **

"We don't have to worry about that." Nacht said as he turned to Asta and Gimodelo suddenly got from behind Nacht and perched himself on his shoulder. "You're no Babylon, true, but things have changed in the Underworld."

**"Ha-ha, no joke! After those stunts you've pulled over the year, there's talks of a coup going around down there!"** Gimodelo said, clearly bemused by the situation. **"You nearly jumping off a tower and drowning in the River Styx has made it seem like the humans made you suicidal."**

"I'm not."

_**"He's not."** _

**"You're not. But the rest of the Underworld doesn't think so. So, naturally, everyone wants to find out which human did what to make you hate us so much and so far, nobody really has a clue. However!"** Gimodelo gossiped. **"A few days ago, there's been news from one of the upper echelon - an inside source says you were raped by a demon."**

"What?!" Both Asta and Liebe exclaimed, the former out of confusion and the latter out of rage.

**"It's true! Apparently, one of the higher demons heard the Triad grilling the dark magic arcane stage mage about Babylon's presumed whereabouts."** Gimodelo continued and Asta perked up when he heard something about Yami. Yami was still alive but the demons were talking to him? **"The guy snapped when Lucifero mentioned something about you needing help and spilled the beans: one of those upper demons, likely before your return became known, must've sexually assaulted you and it hurt you so bad that it's made you despise us! He said it himself, you'd chop your head off sooner than lay with even one of them!"**

"That's... I mean you're not wrong but... you're not right either." Asta said, apprehensive about the entire conversation. " I don't wanna get it on with any of them but not because of... that. _How'd they even assume-"_

Then it hit Asta. Back then, after they defeated Zagred and he told them about Babylon. The reactions suddenly... _made sense. And Asta never really told them about-_

Oh god, Yami and Julius thought he was raped by demons. Considering the fact that it was false information, Asta realised that the whole thing was a misunderstanding that spiraled out of control and proportion like a game of broken communication.

" _Oh nooooooo..._ " Asta droaned as he set his head into his hands.

**"Yeah! And now other demons are trying to grill him for more answers but that's all we got! So now, there's a bunch of theories going around who did it! So far it's either one of the three high demons in Spade or Zagred-"**

**_"Zagred's dead."_** Liebe said bluntly.

**"So he did it?"**

"No, we just killed him because he was gonna kill us. He saw me jump off the roof a few times though." Asta said as he finally lifted his head off of his hands.

**"Ha! But anyway, the higher devils are suspecting one of the Triad did it. And they've been moving rather suspiciously but Lucifero isn't there to monitor them, so-"**

"They're planning a coup against him for my honor and vengeance?"

**"Yep."**

Asta groaned. This whole thing was spiraling out of control.

"So it's likely they'll listen to you." Nacht said, bringing them back to the conversation. "It's a dirty move, playing helpless victim, but that way they'll be willing to do whatever you ask of, like a deal. You may not be Babylon but you used to be them. You have the ability to make however many demon contracts as you wish and with few limitations."

" _For real_?!" Asta exclaimed. A lot of things suddenly made sense. If Babylon had a dozen or so contracts, including the triad demons, then suddenly the concept of raising the Qlipoth didn't seem all that far fetched.

"It's... quite a gift. I myself have already reached my limit." Nacht said, raising the necklace with demonic artifacts. "There's a general rule of thumb with demons - the stronger the demon, the smaller the chances of contracting another. Compensation and all that. Making a contract with a high ranking devil is already pushing it for some."

"But Babylon was an outlier- no, an _exception_ maybe?" Asta asked. Nacht nodded.

"Some who studied demons supposed it had something to do with Babylon constantly being able to reincarnate over and over. Some say that they dabbled in forbidden magic, others say that the reincarnation is a side effect." Nacht continued. "Demon hosts usually live much longer than ordinary humans. Some didn't age at all. So how come Babylon, the strongest demon host in recorded history, was mortal but always reincarnating?"

"Curse." Asta suddenly blurted out. Nacht raised an eyebrow and Liebe looked questionably at him. "I don't know why I said that."

**_"I doubt the curse devil has something against you."_** Liebe commented.

"Maybe it's not the demons but Babylon themselves. Like... maybe that's their price. They can have as many choices and contracts as they want, but only temporarily? Did the contracts break when they died?" Asta asked Nacht. Nacht simply shrugged. He sighed.

"But anyway, seeing as how you really are a clean slate, the real so called training will begin."

"Wait, before that." Asta said, cutting off Nacht and Gimodelo, who was about to jump into Nacht's shadow. "You said I could learn more about Babylon. I don't care for anything it has, but I want- i need to know something _specific_."

Nacht seemed surprised but essentially let Asta continue.

"I need to know about Babylon's last demon's magic. I need to know just what kind of magic Satanael had."

"Why do you need to know that specifically?"

"Because Satanael was the reason why Babylon didn't reincarnate for a millenia in the first place."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Asta: i can't sleep with you, i'm married
> 
> Triad demons, Yuno, Noelle, Mimosa and Leopold: whomst?
> 
> Liebe, showing off his ring tattoo: ME BITCH

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: okay so this was a mess and a half and i probably won't write a continuation until further down the manga, probably in six months, give or take. To be fair, this thing was like 16k words. This was written in a moment of inspiration and looking over it i wonder, why?. I have like four different fanfics in need of updating. Why did i write this? No idea. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed this, not sure when i'll update this again. I can say for certain that i already have an idea for the first half of the second chapter, but i plan this to be a two-shot. Thank you for reading, write about your favorite moments and tell me if i should update any fore-warnings in this fic.


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